A Romanian mother who stole perfume and cosmetics in a £120,000 shoplifting spree at Boots has been jailed for 32 months.
Bianca Mirica, 20, admitted 30 charges of theft from branches of the high street chemist across London between December 2023 and May last year as part of an organised gang of female thieves.
Mirica has three previous convictions for similar offences dating back to her arrival in the UK five years ago, Southwark Crown Court heard.
She stole almost £17,000 worth of items in one thieving expedition at Boots in Hornchurch, east London, on March 7 last year. On another occasion she made off with 10 Yves Saint Laurent concealers, totalling £300.
She previously admitted to 30 counts of theft relating to goods worth £119,318 stolen from Boots at locations across London including Islington, the West End, Kensington, Harrow and Haringey.
Mirica, who has three children, appeared on a video-link from HMP Bronzefield with her month-old baby in her arms. She was assisted throughout the hearing by a Romanian interpreter at the jail.
The last four letters of that nationality description might be unnecessary.
No sorry, how is it possible to nick £17,000 worth of stuff from a Boots in one go ?
Did she break into the pharmacy too ?
Was there a long wheel base Transit outside ?
BEEG ISHOO!!!!!
(Hang on, you do speak English. So why the interpreter?).
…how is it possible to nick £17,000 worth of stuff from a Boots in one go ?
That was my first question too. The second was, with her record why the hell is she still in the country?
…how is it possible to nick £17,000 worth of stuff from a Boots in one go ?
Not been in a Boots for ages, but memory is that the expensive stuff is behind a counter. You might get up to about £50 per item on the shop floor, so you’d need 350-ish items. If they were all small things — branded perfumes, etc. — then you’d probably get them all in a shopping trolley. Or a pram. Would there be that volume of small high-ish value items on the shelves? 70 lines at 5 items per line out? Just about believable.
Her photo certainly screamed about the capital of Italy.
It’s their culture, see.
She should have stolen from Superdrug; same stuff would only have been a £30,000 crime wave there.
A 20 year old mother of three. Sounds about right.
She said Mirica “denied involvement in a broader criminal enterprise” and claimed the goods were for “personal use”,
Just a shame she didn’t nick any birth control stuff. For personal use.
She appeared unmoved as she was sentenced.
Not altogether surprising if her English was sufficiently poor to require a taxpayer-funded interpreter.
…how is it possible to nick £17,000 worth of stuff from a Boots in one go ?
All the good stuff is locked up behind glass doors with crappy locks. So she took keys with her.
(Later on in the reporting)
Mind you, if thats what she looks like after personal use of £120k of cosmetics etc. etc.
Not exactly a “brand ambassador”.
She isn’t a violent or sexual offender so she’ll be let out after 16 months (half her nominal sentence). So that’s £89k for every year in jail.
Is it any wonder that the East European Roma come over here? Where else could one of them with no qualifications other than being a teenage mother “earn” £89k a year?
“Where else could one of them with no qualifications other than being a teenage mother “earn” £89k a year?”
Thing is, she wouldn’t have got more than about 10% of that selling it. So presumably this is just what she was caught and sentenced for.
@ M
She isn’t worth £9k a year. Wiki says average Romanian salary is $1813 pa – less than one fifth of that and Roma incomes are below the median.
Sorry – misread it. Wiki says average Romanian salary $1813 per month, so £16K pa, – but Roma salaries lower so if her pals sell the stuff at quarter of the face price they are still better off
Curious how racism is so usefully accurate, isn’t it?