A serial shoplifter casually fills up a bag with hundreds of pounds worth of Boots beauty products before leaving without paying a penny – part of an incredible £100,000 haul.
Shocking CCTV footage from a Boots store shows shameless Gabriella Stan, 25, stealing Maybelline cosmetics from the shelf with the help of an unidentified female sidekick.
Stan, who came to the UK from Romania, is seen in the 41-second clip looking around for a security guard before plundering several items, placing them in the bag held by her accomplice.
She then moves away as a third woman wheeling a suitcase – believed to be an unconnected shopper – watches on.
The thief mainly targeted branches across London including Ealing, Wandsworth, Camden and Kensington but also stole make-up from Boots in Pontypridd, Wales.
She today admitted stealing £100,000 worth of goods over a nine-month period at Southwark Crown Court and was jailed for two years.
Babatunde Alabi, prosecuting, said Stan was a ‘persistent offender’ who swiped beauty goods worth £5,000 during one expedition alone at Boots in Richmond last October.
He told the court: ‘She enters Boots stores with at least one female.
Stan (pictured), who came to the UK from Romania, is seen in the 41-second clip looking around for a security guard before plundering several items, placing them in the bag held by her accomplice
Shocking CCTV footage from a Boots store shows shameless Gabriella Stan , 25, stealing Maybelline cosmetics from the shelf
‘High-value makeup and beauty items are targeted, they are placed in the bag before being removed from the store.’
Members of the gang would often distract the security guards while their accomplices helped themselves to beauty products.
Dhanes Charme, defending, said: ‘This is someone who in effect carried out the orders of others.’
He added: ‘She cannot write her name, she cannot read or write.’
She wept in the dock as the barrister told the court how her husband has not visited her since her arrest and is understood to have ‘abandoned’ her.
Stan, of Longbridge Road, Dagenham, admitted 14 charges of theft and asked the judge take a further 36 offences into consideration.
Boots provided a business impact statement estimating they lost £143,220 as a result her thieving between May 2 and December 7, 2025.
The thief mainly targeted branches across London including Ealing, Wandsworth, Camden and Kensington
Babatunde Alabi, prosecuting, said Stan was a ‘persistent offender’ who swiped beauty goods worth £5,000 during one expedition
Judge Stephen Tomlinson said: ‘In each instance you stole high-value products from branches of Boots chemists.
‘Your offending was always committed with accomplices which provided distractions.
‘There was a recent occasion where you went as far as South Wales and you were apprehended.’
He added that: ‘The volume of offending means that there was significant planning.’
The judge said he would was prepared to sentence Stan ‘on the basis of the more conservative £100,000 figure’.
She appeared in court aided by a Romanian interpreter. Stan will serve half her sentence before being released on licence.
Stan was also banned from all Boots stores across the UK until 28 April 2031.
Chief Inspector Rav Pathania, the Met’s lead for tackling retail crime, said: ‘Tackling shoplifting is a top priority for the Met and we solved nearly twice as many cases last year while arresting almost 50 per cent more suspects.
‘Shoplifting has fallen by almost four per cent in London – meaning 3,200 fewer victims.’
