A prolific Grays shoplifter has been jailed for 58 weeks and banned from Grays after admitting a string of thefts, including one on Christmas Day. Shellie Rustami, 31, stole almost £1,000 of goods from a variety of shops in the town despite being banned from entering some of them.
Among the things she stole were £30 of flower seeds from Morrisons and £300 of Easter eggs from B&M. On Christmas Day 2024 she stole £79 of meat, laundry detergent and chocolate from the BP service station on the A13 at Orsett Cock.
Rustami, of New Road, appeared in court the day after she was arrested and admitted stealing on 11 occasions from B&M, a BP service station, the Co-op, Farmfoods, Morrisons and Tesco between November 20 2024 and March 13 2025. On the day of her arrest, she had stolen twice from Tesco in Crammavill Street and once from the Co-op in Lodge Lane.
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Sergeant Priest, of Grays Community Policing Team, says: “Rustami is a prolific shoplifter whose crimes have caught up with her thanks to the sharp eyes of an off-duty police officer. They called me and I was able to direct officers to where she was located so they could arrest her.
“We take all reports of shoplifting seriously and urge retailers to report them to us. This way we can spot trends and patterns and direct our operational policing activity accordingly. Providing investigating officers with good-quality CCTV footage and witness statements help them to build strong cases at court, to which offenders often have no choice but to admit their crimes as Rustami did in this case.”
Southend magistrates jailed Rustami on March 14 for a total of 48 weeks for the 11 shop thefts, one attempted theft and seven breaches of a criminal behaviour order imposed on January 1 2025, which forbade her from entering Grays town centre, all of which she admitted.
Her offending also activated a previous suspended jail term of 10 weeks, making a total of 58 weeks in jail. She was also ordered to pay a £187 victim surcharge.
