Bournemouth woman stole goods worth £10,000 from Co-op

Nadine Kowalski made almost daily raids on Co-op stores in Bournemouth.

The 27-year-old local brazenly helped herself to up to £500 worth of groceries at a time, seemingly confident in the knowledge of not getting caught.

On two occasions she even went back to the same store she had targeted that day. Kowalski was so prolific that the courts admitted it was 'hard to keep track' of her offending.

In her latest court appearance, she admitted 26 separate theft offences but magistrates had to adjourn sentencing as they were told there are still several more to come through the system.

Kowalski mostly targeted Co-op stores but has hit five different branches, as well as a Tesco and a Waitrose, in 37 different incidents between December 29 last year and August 10 this year, totalling £9,649.96 of goods.

In August Kowalski was given a 12-month community order after admitting nine counts of theft for shoplifting offences totalling £2,317 from January to May.

She has now been back to court for 26 offences throughout July and into August, totalling £7,332.

Poole Magistrates' Court (Image: Daily Echo)
Magistrates in Poole heard Kowalski stole mostly alcohol, to fund her drug habit.

She hit the same Co-op store on Columbia Road, Bournemouth, five times in four days, stealing £1,475 of stock.

In all, she stole goods worth £4,503.90.

On July 12, having already pilfered bottles of booze worth £175, seemingly confident she would not be stopped she went back again to walk out with another £315 of goods.

Kowalski also hit a different Co-op in Queens Road on July 19.

James Moore, mitigating, asked the court to consider a suspended sentence for his client.

But district judge Orla Austin said: "Miss Kowalski and I have met a number of times. On the last occasion when I imposed the community order, I made it very clear the consequences of reoffending.

"Since then she has reoffended.

"There are so many thefts and more keep being fed through, it is quite hard to keep track of what is outstanding and what has been resolved."

She told the defendant: "I understand you would wish to be dealt with and released. The reality is by the sheer number of thefts you have committed, and more coming through, you are looking at a prison sentence."