Alcohol Theft Kingpin Nabbed After Nationwide Spree
Alexandru Cercel, 39, from Dagenham, led a booze-thieving gang that struck big supermarket chains like Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, and Sainsbury’s from October 2021 to June 2023.
£3,000 Worth of Booze Looted Per Raid
The gang didn’t just hit once. They returned up to five times a day to the same stores, stripping shelves dry and stealing up to £3,000 of alcohol during each raid.
Dodging Arrest at Dover Docks
Cercel’s luck ran out on 1 July 2023, when he was caught trying to flee the country at Dover docks. Cops had been hunting him for months.
Massive Crime Spree Across East England
Further probes revealed the gang travelled far and wide, hitting locations including Cambridge, Ipswich, Basildon, Beccles, Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Diss, Canvey Island, and Hertford.
While behind bars, Cercel cooperated with Norfolk and Suffolk police. They presented him with evidence for 26 extra thefts, which he confessed to.
These additional raids included nine crimes in Norfolk and seven in Suffolk, targeting alcohol worth around £16,000.
Industrial-Scale Operation Ends With Jail Time
At Canterbury Crown Court on 17 November 2023, Cercel admitted to eight counts of stealing booze from Tesco stores in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Kent, and Hertfordshire. He requested the court to consider all 26 other thefts too.
The scale of the crimes was described as “industrial.”
Sentencing him to two years, the judge said the thefts were likely funding other criminal enterprises and highlighted the “highly organised and planned offending” involved.
Cercel received credit for admitting to his crimes, which showed “genuine remorse” and saved police valuable investigation time.
