A prolific shoplifter has been jailed for 10 years after stealing from more than 1,000 shops across the country.

Narinder Kaur from Cleverton, Wiltshire, tricked high street stores into giving her about £500k in refunds for goods she had stolen.

Kaur was found guilty of 25 separate offences in March 2023, including fraud, possessing and transferring criminal property and perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing Kaur in her absence, Judge Ian Lawrie KC, at Gloucester Crown Court described her as a “thoroughly dishonest individual”.

At her trial, prosecutors said the 54-year-old found a way of “beating the system” by getting retailers to pay her the full value of things she had stolen.

She discovered that with many large retailers, she could take an item they sell back in, claim she had bought it but lost the receipt, and then exchange it.

At the same time, she would buy something of low value, thereby getting a receipt for both items that entitled her to a refund on both.

The serial shoplifter travelled all over the country, robbing stores in Solihull, Worcester, Cheltenham, Malvern, Shrewsbury, Cardiff, Trowbridge, Reading and Yeovil, among other locations.

She spent moderate amounts but gained tens of thousands of pounds in fraudulent refunds, targeting Boots, Debenhams, Homebase, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Monsoon, M&S and TK Maxx.

The prosecution proved that Ms Kaur defrauded the various retailers more than a thousand times between July 2015 and February 2019.

Kaur was also found to have defrauded eight firms of solicitors by instructing them to sue her brother for money, and using male accomplices to pay the compensation using stolen credit cards.

The firms then forwarded the money to her before the frauds were uncovered.

Kaur also attempted to defraud Wiltshire Council of £7,400 by overpaying using stolen credit cards and then contacting the council for a refund, claiming she had accidentally made a payment with “too many zeros”.

When Kaur was finally arrested she lied to the courts, producing false documentation to avoid being convicted of speeding offences so as to relax her bail conditions.

Steve Tristram, a fraud investigator for West Mercia Police, said the case was the most “planned” and “sophisticated” operation he had ever seen.

“I’ve never met anybody who was operating on this scale in my entire service,” he said.

“This lady was operating on an industrial scale, this was a full time job for her, six days a week – eight or nine hours a day.”

Mr Tristram said Kaur would hire cars to avoid detection, and created false identities to open new bank accounts after suspicions were raised and her accounts were closed.

Speaking to the BBC about the sentencing, Mr Tristram said he was “very pleased” with the verdict.

“Ten years is a significant custodial sentence handed down by the judge,” he said.

“It sends out a clear message that the police and courts will deal positively with retail fraudsters and shoplifters.”

Referring to Kaur’s absence in the courtroom, Mr Tristram added: “That’s just indicative of the type of person she is.

“Despite protesting her innocence, clearly she realised the game was up and she didn’t want to face her judgement today.”