Prolific shoplifter back behind bars after being re-arrested at the prison gates

A prolific shoplifter was rearrested as he was released from prison and will now serve several more years behind bars.

While Neil Stimson, 48, from Maunder Avenue, Biggleswade, was being held in Bedford Prison officers identified him as being responsible for a string of shop-lifting offences in the town during September.

Stimson was due to be released after a month in prison, but as he was leaving, officers from Bedfordshire Police’s Biggleswade community team were waiting for him.

He was charged with nine offences of stealing from shops and one of burglary. He was jailed for 4 and a half months of the shop-lifting offences and is awaiting sentence for the burglary offence.

But the offences also triggered the second half of a previous 8-year sentence, so Stimson now faces almost 4 and a half years in prison.

Sergeant Sam Evans, of the Biggleswade teams said: “This was really good work by the team here, firstly to identify Stimson but then to secure the convictions in in conjunction with our specialist burglary team.

“Stimson was expecting to walk free from Bedford Prison so it came as an unwanted surprise for him to find us at the prison gates.

“These convictions mean a regular offender will be off our streets for many years.”