Gang supplied dairies

Jeet Bhitai bought and sold stolen goods from Countdown. Photo / Janna Dixon

A gang of shoplifters have stolen tens of thousands of dollars of groceries from big supermarkets to supply "bosses" at two small neighbourhood dairies.

In a plot that could be out of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, two young women have been convicted of theft and the dairy owners of receiving stolen goods.

But police believe the two women are just the tip of the iceberg, and that a gang of mostly male thieves has stolen more than $50,000 of groceries.

In what police are calling a "mutually beneficial arrangement", the two convicted shoplifters were taking large quantities of razor blades, batteries, tins of ham, bin bags, toiletries, medication and skin care products from two Countdown supermarkets in Papakura to supply Stop and Save in Great South Rd and Reliance Mini Mart in O'Shannessey St.

They would sell the goods, still sporting their Countdown barcodes, to the dairy owners at what police said were "ridiculously low prices".

The dairy owners would then sell them for a lot less than the supermarket.

Reliance Mini Mart owner Jeet Bhitai refused to talk about his involvement with the thieves.

"I don't want to say anything; the court dealt with it; it's finished now and I can get on with my life," Bhitai said.

Stop and Save owner Hervinder Sing told the Herald on Sunday he didn't know the goods were stolen, despite pleading guilty in Papakura District Court.

He said he couldn't afford a $5000 legal bill to defend himself and now has to live with a criminal record against his name.

"I didn't know it was stolen, it's my mistake and I know to check for proper ID now. I'm just ashamed," Sing said.

He said the thieves returned to his shop with more stolen goods and verbally abused him when he declined to buy the products.

"He said, 'Boss, you buy this?' and I said, 'Get out, get out'. That's when he said, 'listen, this is my country you are in'," Sing said.

Papakura Sergeant Jason Greenhalgh said, as an example, a packet of razor blades that normally retailed for about $20 would be sold to the dairy owners for about $5. They would resell them for $10 or $15. A roll of bin bags cost the shop owners $1 each and were then resold for $2.50. Greenhalgh estimated about $40,000 worth of bin bags alone had been stolen over time.

"These were small shops that weren't part of a chain able to sell items at half the cost of Countdown," Greenhalgh said.

When police executed search warrants on the shops in April, they took a Countdown employee with them who identified the goods using a bar code scanner. About $15,000 of Countdown goods were recovered but Greenhalgh said there was about $5000 worth of other merchandise that was clearly stolen, but police were unable to trace where it had come from.

They recovered about $300 of tinned ham from one shop as well as "boxes and boxes" of over-the-counter medications.

Sing was fined $600 and Bhitai $100, but police said that might not be enough to prevent further offending. Both shoplifters, aged in their 20s, were also charged, convicted and fined.

Countdown spokesman Luke Schepen said supermarkets had a range of theft prevention and detection methods in place.

Theft spree just tip of iceberg, p22