Nuisance shoplifter who tormented Ollerton’s stores locked up

A prolific thief responsible for continually causing a nuisance in Ollerton has been jailed.

Sally Knowles’ exploits have seen her become well-known in the community for all the wrong reasons.

As well as repeatedly targeting the area’s stores, she has been known to scavenge through people’s sheds for items too.

Her stealing got to the extent that she was given a suspended sentence earlier this year and issued with a criminal behaviour order.

As part of this, she was banned from stepping foot in the Forest Road area or any of the stores nearby that she’d been stealing from.

Knowles chose to ignore these warnings however – instead targeting Ollerton’s shops 13 more times from the end of July to mid-August.

Most of these thefts took place in the exact area she was banned from, including on 14 August, when she was caught in the act by police.

After being alerted by shopworkers, officers travelled to Forest Road and stopped Knowles as she walked out of a store with stolen chocolates.

Police were initially called after neighbourhood officers put a post out on the Ollerton Shopwatch app asking people to keep an eye out for Knowles.

By that stage, officers had already gathered the evidence needed to connect Knowles to a series of further thefts and other criminal behaviour.

The 40-year-old went on to plead guilty to 11 counts of theft, two attempted thefts, and an assault on 9 August.

She also admitted to 14 separate breaches of her existing two-year criminal behaviour order (CBO).

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday (13 September), Knowles, of Bentinck Close, Ollerton, was jailed for 10 months.

Her criminal behaviour order was also amended, so that she was banned from entering any garden without invitation as well.

Sergeant Christian Hurley, of Newark and Sherwood’s neighbourhood policing team, said: “Knowles is a well-known shoplifter who has been causing nothing but trouble in Ollerton for some time now.

“Despite being put before the courts several times and receiving multiple warnings, in the form of a suspended sentence and a CBO, she has not learnt her lesson.

“As a consequence of her causing such a nuisance, Knowles has made herself a familiar face to a lot of people, especially those working in Ollerton’s shops.

“This meant that, when she showed up on her latest mission to steal, she was immediately recognised by shopworkers, who were able to contact us, so that we could catch her in the act.

“This represented a great example of the effectiveness of the Ollerton Shopwatch app, which we set up last year, to help target shoplifting by raising awareness of who these offenders are to the community.

“We’re delighted to see Knowles has now been jailed for her actions, while it was also pleasing to amend her existing CBO, preventing her from causing further issues by going into people’s gardens without permission.”