Britain's most prolific shoplifter racks up ANOTHER conviction

Shop owners, managers and their security teams will be watching for one-woman crimewave Tanya Liddle in a week's time.

Britain's most prolific shoplifter is due to be released from prison next Monday having secured her 172nd conviction and racking up 400-plus arrests and 350 crimes.

The habitual offender has now been banned from all shops in the Northumbria Police area, with the exception of a pharmacy, a supermarket and a clothing retailer.

During her most recent crime spree, in late August, she tried to leave stores with two shark hoovers, Pokémon cards, clothing, handbags, coffee, instant noodles. In March she was arrested for snatching £18 of chocolate from a service station.

But shop staff say the ban 'won't stop her' - in fact they will be watching and waiting expecting her to arrive early next week, usually in a bizarre disguise involving a wig, oversized clothing and sunglasses, because she is due for release after a few weeks in prison.

One store manager has told MailOnline: 'We've been plagued by Tanya for many years now. When she's out of prison she tends to try her luck at our shop on almost a daily basis'.

While Emmeline Taylor, a criminology professor at City University, has said when asked whether Tanya would re-offend: 'The definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing but expect something different'.

Liddle's one-woman crime wave is part of a much larger shoplifting epidemic, which the British Retail Consortium (BRC) says costs retailers £1.8billion-a-year.

There were more than 430,000 cases in 2023 - many by repeat offenders - the worst on record, it was reported yesterday.

Habitual thief Tanya is about to walk free again next Monday after getting a 172nd conviction for trying to steal £72.50 of laundry products from a Newcastle Asda , where security staff stopped her before she could flee.

The police weren't called but when she returned again the following day to try to steal clothes and a handbag, she was arrested and later put in prison, yet again.

One local store owner even claimed she used her TikTok account, which has 1400 followers, to teach people 'how to get away with stealing'. The post has since been taken down.

The Sunday Times has reported that she appeared in court via video link from HM Prison Low Newton in Durham last week, where she was given a conditional discharge meaning she did not receive any extra jail time for her 172nd conviction.

Emmeline Taylor told the paper: 'The courts have frustrated all options and are not sure what else to do. For drug-addicted offenders, the only effective treatment is rehabilitation'.

Liddle served time in prison in May and July this year, the newspaper said, but only served half the time on both occasions with her victims saying time and again she is not 'properly punished'.

A manager of a local supermarket, who asked to remain anonymous, has told MailOnline that Liddle tries to steal from them most days when not behind bars.

'Whilst we stop her on most of these occasions, we estimate that she's stolen thousands from us.

'She was in only a couple of months ago and tried walking past me with bags for life full of products. Like many others we are baffled that she isn't serving major prison time.

'She isn't fazed by being arrested for a few weeks here and there, and we'll be amazed if this ban actually works.

'It's no wonder we have to deal with shoplifters on a regular basis given even the likes of Tanya aren't properly punished'.

In September Northumbria Police banned her from pretty much every shop in the region for the next two years.

One Poundland manager from the area told The Sunday Times: 'She was out of prison five weeks ago, that same day she was shoplifting again'.

Her sentencing hearing last week heard that the probation service will ensure that she has somewhere to stay when she is released and help her apply for benefits.

Her defence counsel Jack Lovell reportedly said his client 'takes full responsibility' for her thefts - but is stuck in 'a vicious circle'.

'These are all the underlying issues that lead to her offending in the first place.

'It's the first time in a long time that she's had some support', he said.

Liddle, 43, often wears big hats, wigs and sunglasses to avoid being recognised while swiping goods from the stores in the north-east she has stolen from so often over the years .

Shopkeepers told MailOnline last month that they simply cannot believe that she is not in prison despite her being a walking crime wave.

A recent crime saw her steal £1,500 worth of bags from TK Maxx on Westmorland Retail Park in Cramlington

Tommy Moir, 27, the manager of Card factory in Gosforth Shopping Centre, which Liddle was banned from in 2013, said: 'She wears different wigs so people don't recognise her when she comes in.

'We point her out to new staff members when she comes in.

'She has a TikTok account where she showed people how to get away with stealing, but the video was soon taken down.

'She has only stole a chocolate bar from us once and was picked up by security at the doors so we asked for it back.'

Liddle's social media account features a number of videos showing her sporting different wigs and hats. In one video she is seen lip syncing to Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal'.

The thief has now been slapped with a civil injunction, preventing her from entering all but three stores in the Northumbria Police patch - which includes an area of 2,000 square miles.

But, Tommy doesn't think the ban will stop her from nicking goods across the city.

He continued: 'I don't know how the ban is going to work or how it will be reinforced. She will still try to come into different stores.

'I don't think there's much else anyone can do. If she was sent to prison, she would only go away for a few months and come back out to do the same thing.'

Local shop owner Sube Ikram doesn't think the measures have gone far enough and claim she should be in prison.

The 33-year-old, who owns Jolly's Tech, said: 'She has stole an item from us worth £100, we are a small business, we will never recover that cost.

'I had been warned by many people about Tanya Liddle, everyone told me to be aware of her.

'She wears a really big coat so she can quickly shove things in the pocket, she is very skilled at what she does.

'She has previously been to Savers and cleaned them out.

'These people should be sent away for a lifetime or get the treatment and help that they need.

'They are damaging society.'

Liddle was also previously banned from Belvedere Retail Park in Kingston Park back in 2013.