Devon & Cornwall Police News site

We are working hard to tackle retail crime, help victims and bring offenders to justice by utilising new technology. And the effort is paying off with praise from a major High Street chain.

Bosses at Boots say they are impressed by officers who investigated a spate of high value thefts in their stores. And it’s just one of the fantastic results that the Force has managed to secure thanks to the Auror and UK Partners Against Crime (UK-PAC) platforms.

Police teams are already making a difference thanks to new systems in place which allow shops to share information directly with officers and each other.  Police want to spread the word that shoplifters are not welcome in our towns and cities and are urging retail staff to report incidents when they happen.   

South Devon Police Commander Roy Linden said: “We want to send a clear message to those whose livelihoods are impacted by theft, that we do listen to their concerns and work hard to get results for them and the wider community.

“Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, and staff should not feel intimidated or be verbally or physically abused during their working day.  We encourage any business to report shoplifting, and our partnership with UK-PAC has made reporting offences much quicker.”

Two men were jailed for retail theft in June after targeting numerous Boots stores across England and Wales.

Florin Ionescu, 28 of Triumph Close, Coventry, and Bogdan Nistor, 33 of Stoke on Trent, were sentenced on Friday 6 June at Exeter Crown Court. Nistor received 23 months custodial and Ionescu received 20 months custodial sentence.

An investigation uncovered that the pair were part of wider organised criminality and had made off with more than £20,000 worth of good from various branches of Boots stores across the UK. This included Wales, West Midlands, Staffordshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Sussex and Wiltshire.

Both had each pleaded guilty to a single count of Conspire to Steal from shops during the period between 01/12/24 and 03/04/2025 at an earlier court hearing. This encompassed 23 instances of stealing medical and beauty products.

The pair targeted retail outlets without any consideration of the impact their behaviour would have on employees or the businesses they were stealing from.

Phil Bance, Boots CARE Operations Manager (CCTV Monitoring Centre, Crime Intelligence, Accident Response, Emergency), said: “Tackling the growing levels of retail crime is a collaborative effort, so we’re pleased to work alongside Devon & Cornwall Police to help make our stores safer for our customers and colleagues. We’ve had a number of fantastic results with Devon & Cornwall Police since we started Direct to Police Reporting through the Auror platform.”

The UK-PAC platform (app) is available in Torbay thanks to OPCC funding and also and other parts of Devon and Cornwall such as Saltash, Looe and Torpoint. Businesses are encouraged to sign up and some free membership pilots have been available. To find out more please visit uk-pac.com.

UK-PAC has a staff resource which triages all reported business crimes and then collects evidence from businesses to prepare cases ready for police prosecution.

Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: “These sentences clearly demonstrate the benefits of harnessing the power of technology to tackle persistent offenders.

“Everyone has the right to earn a living without fear of crime, and I want all businesses, large or small, to feel safe in the knowledge that shoplifters will be brought to justice.

“That is why I have invested in the UK-PAC platform, offering traders in Torbay the chance to use it for free for one year, and I’m pleased to see businesses signing up not just there but across Devon and Cornwall.

“I would encourage any trader concerned about retail crime to sign up and report crime every single time it happens, to help build a picture and ensure criminals who target our hard-working businesspeople pay the price for their actions.”