A marauding thief pilfered over £13,000 from unattended cash registers in stores across Essex.

Bradley Pogmore was located and apprehended after a security guard grappled his jacket away from him as he fled a store.

Pogmore, 40, of Foxlands Road in Dagenham, was accountable for an eight-month crime spree that stretched throughout the home counties and into London.

Between September 2021 and April 2022, Pogmore employed tools to pry open empty checkouts in unstaffed areas of retailers. Kent Police stated that diversionary tactics were used to distract the attention of staff. He would conceal himself from employees by crouching beside the tills, before stealing hundreds of pounds at a time.

In January 2022, he stole from Wickes in Sevenoaks after an accomplice held up a large piece of corrugated plastic to obstruct the view of workers while he forced open a till.

Pogmore was arrested on 13th April last year following an investigation that forensically linked him to four of the crime scenes, including DNA from a dropped hat, and evidence recovered from a jacket seized by an Asda security guard during efforts to apprehend him in Chelmsford.

Detective Constable Emma Laimbeer of the Kent Police Crime Squad said: ‘Pogmore has a lengthy criminal history and has indiscriminately targeted businesses far and wide, during a relentless crime spree. Ultimately the actions of offenders like him can have a drastic effect on businesses, which often have little choice but to pass on the cost of thefts to law abiding customers.

“Pogmore’s latest convictions are in connection with at least 24 burglary offences, and a custodial sentence will reassure retailers that his prolific offending has not gone unpunished.”

Pogmore appeared at Maidstone Crown Court where he admitted conspiracy to commit burglary, as well as a multitude of separate burglary offences and breaching a criminal behaviour order.

On Tuesday, 23rd May, Pogmore was sentenced to two years and nine months’ imprisonment.

(Source: EssexLive)