What we USED to do to shoplifters: How the courts used to sentence professional thieves to hard labour – or kick them out of the country if they were foreign
- Reports in the Daily Mail from a century ago show punishments for shoplifting
- Woman was given hard labour in 1899 for stealing lace, ribbons and a feather
Shopkeepers today can expect little help from police when thieves plunder items from their stores.
Business owners often do not even bother reporting thefts to officers when they are raided, recent reports have revealed.
But, back when the notorious Forty Elephants female shoplifting gang were operating – from the 1870s – the law was not so soft on criminals.
Alice Diamond, one of the leading members of the Forty Elephants, received her first prison sentence in 1913 at the age of just 17, after she stole blouses from a department store.
And reports in the Daily Mail dating as far back as the 1890s show how a slew of other female criminals received harsh punishments for shoplifting.
Alice Diamond (left), Lilian Rose Kendall (centre) and Maggie Hughes were all members of the notorious Forty Elephants shoplifting gang. All three women received prison sentences at various points, unlike today’s shoplifters, who often get away scot free
Reports in the Daily Mail dating as far back as 1896 show how a slew of other female criminals received harsh punishments for shoplifting. One woman (above) – described as ‘elderly’ – was sentenced to three months’ hard labour in 1899 for stealing some lace, ribbons and a feather from a department store
One woman – described as ‘elderly’ – was sentenced to three months’ hard labour in 1899 for stealing some lace, ribbons and a feather from a department store.
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Another was given four months’ hard labour in 1911 for stealing two tablecloths, forty-two handkerchiefs, two blouses, five belts, two ‘collarettes’, two purses and a paste brooch.
In 1935, two Italian students, aged 22 and 20, were sentenced to a month in prison and recommended for deportation after stealing 92 items in a single day.
The women, named Igina Sbardella and Giulia Campi, stole items from Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street.
They initially pilfered a suitcase and then used it to walk from ‘counter to counter taking a large number of articles and placing them in the case.’
The women then went to Selfridges, where they ‘proceeded to steal more goods from five different counters’.
The items, said to include books, table knives, calendars, perfume, handkerchiefs and bangles, were collectively worth more than £10 – a figure which equates to more than £500 today.
Another was given four months’ hard labour in 1911 for stealing two tablecloths, forty-two handkerchiefs, two blouses, five belts, two ‘collarettes’, two purses and a paste brooch
In 1935, two Italian students, aged 22 and 20, were sentenced to a month in prison and recommended for deportation after stealing 92 items in a single day. The women, named Igina Sbardella and Giulia Campi, stole items from Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street
In 1909, the Daily Mail told of the ‘extraordinary story’ of 74-year-old Francis Melville, who pleaded guilty to stealing a pair of shoes
In 1930, when a shoplifter was fined for stealing a piece of fur from an outlet on Oxford Street, the magistrate warned that he would send every woman who stole by the same method to prison
In 1929, two women were charged with stealing 20 items from Selfridges. It was also found that the thieves had stolen items in their homes worth £500. The women were sentenced to 10 weeks in prison
In 1906, a 28-year-old woman was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for stealing ‘a quantity of silk and other articles’ from the Whiteley department store in Bayswater
In 1896, a ‘notorious shoplifter’ – then aged 73 – was sent to trial for stealing a pair of men’s socks from outside a shop
In 1909, the Daily Mail told of the ‘extraordinary story’ of 74-year-old Francis Melville, who pleaded guilty to stealing a pair of shoes.
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Police told how the woman had been convicted of shoplifting ten times since 1894.
‘She was a dangerous thief who frequented West End establishments and stored up the property she stole to such an extent that the detective once had to charter two gabs to convey the goods to the police station,’ the Mail reported.
The woman was a prolific thief despite the fact that she was independently wealthy. Police found £10 worth of gold and £200 of investments at her home.
It meant that, in today’s money, she had wealth of more than £20,000.
Yet, concealed in boxes and under her mattress were items including, ’22 pairs of gloves’, ’13 pairs of stockings’, ’19 handkerchiefs’, ’84 pieces of ribbon of all lengths and shades’ and ’17 yards of lace’.
Melville was said to have previously been a governess ‘in the families of well-known people’.
The judge sentenced her to three years of penal servitude.
In 1930, when a shoplifter was fined for stealing a piece of fur from an outlet on Oxford Street, the magistrate warned: ‘I shall be forced to send every woman who steals by this shoplifting method, whether she be a first offender or not, to prison with hard labour to protect stores of the West End of London from the daily depredations of apparently respectable women.
‘It is amazing that so many well-dressed women should be walking about the streets potential and actual thieves, going from shop to shop and department to department indulging in wholesale robbery.
‘This growing and serious practice must be put down.’
In 1929, two women were charged with stealing 20 items from Selfridges. It was also found that the thieves had stolen items in their homes worth £500.
The women were sentenced to 10 weeks in prison.
In 1896, a ‘notorious shoplifter’ – then aged 73 – was sent to trial for stealing a pair of men’s socks from outside a shop.
In 1906, a 28-year-old woman was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for stealing ‘a quantity of silk and other articles’ from the Whiteley department store in Bayswater.
The Forty Elephants gang got their name from their original base of operations in the London Borough of Elephant and Castle.
They were the wives, girlfriends and sisters of criminal gang The Elephant Mob and committed their crimes to keep up a standard of living if their husbands got locked up.
At first they started shoplifting from expensive London department stores such as Selfridges – getting away with scores of high-end fashion items in pockets sewn onto their dresses.
Selfridges in London, decorated for the coronation of George V in 1911 – 10 years after the death of Queen Victoria
The gang’s leader Mary Carr used several aliases including ‘Polly’ but she eventually became well-known by store management and the police.
But as shop assistants watched her intently several other girls in the gang came in and pilfered expensive items.
When police switched on to the gang’s methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester.
Diamond was born in 1886 in Southwark into a criminal family.
In 1905 she was arrested for using a fake identity to gain access into an ammunition factory, from which which she was suspected of trying to steal explosives.
She was 5ft 8in and on each hand she wore a few diamond rings which doubled as knuckle dusters – the police said she had a ‘punch to be reckoned with’.
Diamond Annie expanded the gang to include protection, burglary and blackmail.
The Forty Elephants continued to operate through the Second World War but by the 1950s had fizzled out.
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