South Ockendon: Jail for prolific offender

A prolific South Ockendon offender has been jailed for ten months, thanks to a fleet-footed police officer and quick-thinking store staff in the town.

Luke Warren, 30, was spotted on 31 January outside a store he had targeted before and staff rang us. Shortly afterwards, one of our town centre team officers on routine patrol recognised him from the description supplied.

Despite Warren being on a bicycle she followed him on foot while radioing her position. Warren was arrested by a colleague minutes later. The bicycle was subsequently identified as being stolen.

Appearing before Southend magistrates on 3 February, Warren, of Danbury Crescent, admitted three counts of shop theft and four of attempted shop theft between 26 & 31 January 2025 and stealing a bicycle on 31 January 2025. He also pleaded guilty to a house burglary in July 2024. 

After the hearing, Sergeant Adam Priest, of Grays Town Centre Team, said the quick response of the shop staff and the description they supplied helped officers to arrest Warren.

“It was thanks to the description given that Warren was spotted by our officer so swiftly and arrested. Information like this is vital in assisting us to tackle shop theft and, indeed, other crimes.
“We want people to report crimes and information about suspects to us, so that we can act on it. Even if we can’t use the information you supply immediately, it all helps us to build a picture of crime and anti-social behaviour in our communities, which we use to target our operational policing activity accordingly.
“Warren is a prolific offender but I hope the court sentence has given staff in the stores he’s targeted reassurance that we have taken positive action against him.”

Warren was sentenced to four months in prison for the burglary, with an additional two months for each shop theft, to run consecutively, and one month for the attempted thefts, to run concurrently. He was also ordered to pay a total of £520 in compensation.

Magistrates were told he’d stolen £450 of chocolate and other food from Tesco in Derry Court on three occasions in the two days before his arrest and had attempted to steal goods from Savers in Derwent Parade on four occasions in the previous five days.

The court also heard that in July 2024, Warren had stolen passports, bank cards and cash from a safe in a room he was not allowed to enter in the shared house he had been living in at the time.

We recognise that shoplifting and abuse of retail staff can sometimes go unreported but, under the Open For Business, Closed For Crime initiative, our business crime officers encourage retailers and their staff to report shop theft, abuse and anti-social behaviour to us.

We use the information to identify emerging trends and, where we have the evidence, we will look to secure charges but we can’t do this without your help so please report online or by ringing 101. If it’s a crime in progress, always ring 999.

Our Business Crime Team works with store chains and independent retailers to provide specialised crime prevention and staff safety advice.

To find out how they can help your business, visit our Business Crime Team pages.