A man who stole over £3,000 worth of board games, books and toys from a Waterstones store has been sentenced following a Met Police investigation.
Paul Mangal, 58, of Hornsey Rise Gardens in Haringey, repeatedly targeted the Waterstones on The Broadway, Crouch End between April 2023 and February this year.
He was sentenced at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 29 April. Mangal received 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years. He was also banned from entering Crouch End or Hornsey for two years, and cannot carry a suitcase in either area.
Police said the conviction followed a focused operation by the local policing team. Officers began increasing patrols around The Broadway last September after reports of repeated thefts. They built relationships with local shop staff and security teams, including those at Waterstones.
Police launched a month-long operation in January to gather CCTV and other evidence to track Mangal’s activities.
Staff alerted officers on Sunday, 23 February, when Mangal returned to the store and left with several items in a suitcase. He was arrested shortly after near his home and charged the next day. He pleaded guilty to 23 charges of theft at court on Monday, 24 February.
Sergeant James Elliott, from the local policing team, said: “We’ve recognised that shoplifting is something local people and businesses in Haringey are concerned about, and we are stepping up our efforts to tackle it.
“Through building strong relationships with staff at this branch of Waterstones, we were able to identify Mangal by assessing his patterns of offending, which appeared to ramp up before, during and immediately after Christmas, then almost daily up until his arrest.
“Sadly, we know some businesses on The Broadway are being targeted so often, many have stopped reporting thefts to police, so I hope the success of this case will encourage more to work closely with us so we can remove the most prolific shoplifters from our streets.”
Since February, the number of officers patrolling the ward has doubled, and thefts have dropped by 35 per cent since December.
Police are also planning to introduce Live Facial Recognition patrols to identify offenders, and will use bicycles over the summer to help respond to incidents more quickly.
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