Persistent offender sent to prison for breaching criminal behaviour order

A 34-year-old habitual shoplifter who persistently breached a criminal behaviour order, which was put in place to stop his offending, has been jailed for more than two years.

Northampton Magistrates’ Court issued Joseph Mills, of no fixed address, with the three-year order in September 2024, which prohibited him from entering any shops in the county, where he had been banned.

This included two in the Kingsthorpe area of Northampton – The One Shop in Stanhope Road and Tesco Express in Link Road – but despite the court order, he continued to target both the retailers along with branches of the Co-op in Semilong Road and High Street, Upton.

In June last year, Mills was back before the same court and sentenced to 20 weeks in prison after pleading guilty to 11 offences of theft from shops and breaching his criminal behaviour order.

However, upon his release from prison Mills continued to re-offend and on November 27, he appeared before Northampton Crown Court, where he was sentenced to 31 months in prison after admitting 65 offences – 38 thefts from shops and 26 criminal behaviour order breaches.

Neil Cowley of the Northamptonshire Business Crime Partnership said: “Joseph Mills chose to ignore court orders and continued his prolific offending and therefore this sentence reflects his disregard for the law.

“Mills is one of Northampton’s most active thieves and the community, retailers and staff will be safer in his absence. We hope that he has time to reflect upon his behaviour and when he returns to society he is in a better place.

“I would like to thank the victims of Mills’ offending for their support which again highlights the value of partnership working between retailers, policing and Northamptonshire Business Crime Partnership.”

Working alongside Northamptonshire Business Crime Partnership, Northamptonshire Police is committed to delivering against the national Retail Crime Action Plan to bring more offenders to justice. For more information click here.