A Tulse Hill mum-of-five who was part of a “professional” shoplifting gang known as “The Spice Girls” has been jailed for her part in a £12,000 series of raids on West End stores.
Camille Gay, 30, was six months pregnant when she was caught brazenly sorting through £1,500 of stolen designer clothes and lingerie with fellow gang members in Oxford Street on October 2 last year.
Southwark Crown Court heard on Friday how they had stuffed so much loot into the bags they were almost too heavy for them to lift.
Gay - who ran from officers, dropping a bag of clothes worth more than £450 - was sentenced to 16 months in prison after admitting conspiracy to steal, and a further four months for breaching two suspended sentences she was serving.
The court heard she had seven previous convictions, mostly theft-related.
Accomplice Melissa Grant, 39, from Paddington, who had racked up 27 previous matters of theft from stores, was jailed for 21 months.
Judge James Wadsworth, QC, told the defendants: “What you have pleaded guilty to was in my view, in respect of all of you, organised and professional shoplifting on a large scale.”
The gang were known to have struck on numerous occasions in central London, as well as major shopping centres elsewhere in the southeast.
“Spice Girls” member Ola Ilesanmi, 39, of Trinity Rise, Tulse Hill, will also be sentenced at a later date after admitting conspiracy to steal.
The court heard more than 100 items of clothing worth more than £10,000 were discovered at her home after her arrest.
Angela Johnson, 59, of Marqueen Towers, Streatham High Road, who had previously admitted the conspiracy charge, is being sought by police after she skipped bail.
She was spotted by police putting clothes given to her by the shoplifters into black binliners, the court heard.
Prosecutor Sally Fudge said: “Miss Johnson seemed to struggle with the weight of the bags she had, and had to put them down.”
When officers stopped her, they found the bags were full of stolen clothing from GAP, Uniclo, Oasis and Next, including 15 pairs of trousers, four tops and three pairs of shoes.
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