A POLICE clampdown on prolific shoplifters resulted in the arrest of six people following the first week of appeals.
Five people have been charged and two have been remanded to prison.
Among them was a man who had allegedly been seen stealing electrical equipment and tanning products to the value of £1,000 from Boots the Chemist in Driffield.
CCTV images were published and he was named by a member of the public who called the police on Thursday August 9.
The crackdown, known as Operation Lilly has been launched against prolific and career criminals across the Humberside Police East Riding area.
An eight week operation has been launched in towns across the region to gather intelligence and arrest those responsible for as many ‘briefcase shoplifting crimes’ currently filed as undetected.
Detective Mark Ormiston overseeing Operation Lilly said: “My team have so far identified about 50 suspects and with the help from the public, we will be able to identify and prosecute anybody else, we believe has committed a crime.
“Britain is the shoplifting capital of Europe, which means each UK taxpayer is paying the bill for shoplifting?
“There were more than 1198 shoplifting offences reported in the East Riding in 2011, most of which an offender was identified and prosecuted, however I still have a large amount of retail crimes still filed as undetected, which I want to solve.
“I would strongly recommend anyone who has recently stolen anything, to have a bought of honesty and come forward; coming clean may just save you from receiving a criminal conviction.
He explained: “Some of the crimes were committed many months ago, my team will be knocking on these criminal doors, any day, so come clean and make it easy for yourselves and my officers.
“CCTV cameras are fantastic tools to record images and can help with prosecutions if good quality equipment is used.
Cameras are often highly visible and monitors may be mounted at entrances, with signs displayed alerting potential thieves to the use of CCTV.