Articles | 'Millionaire shoplifter' jailed

'Millionaire shoplifter' jailed

Published: Monday, 4 August 2008, 6:08PM

A conman who lived the lifestyle of a millionaire by forging till receipts for DIY equipment has been jailed for more than two years.

Police dubbed Kevin Castle the Millionaire Shoplifter after he earned up to £1,000 a day from refunds at stores across the country.

He used the cash to fund his luxury London flat and eat in the finest restaurants. He booked a 28-night stay at Claridge's Hotel in London and dined at Gordon Ramsay's award-winning restaurant.

At first, he got away with it by using a variety of disguises, such as posing as a electrical engineer, alarm fitter and property developer, before he was finally caught out.

But the 43-year-old of Stapleford, Nottingham, was finally caught in the act as he tried to exchange a packet of doorknobs at the Homebase branch in Altrincham.

Peter McNaught, prosecuting, said this led to police investigating the financial affairs of Castle and his then-partner, Elaine Rogers.

She earned just £70 per fortnight as a shop assistant but her account showed a number of large deposits.

Sentencing him Judge Phillip Sycamore said: "You have an appalling record of offending, almost exclusively for offences of dishonesty".

He said Ms Rogers was given a suspended sentence because she had no knowledge of Castle's criminal activity but in his case a custodial sentence was "inevitable".

Castle was sentenced to 20 months for the converting offence and eight months for the 11 counts of fraud.

He buried his head in his hands when the sentence was delivered and then shook his head.