Prolific board games thief avoids jail
A 'prolific shoplifter' who stole £3,000 worth of board games has been spared jail.
Paul Mangal, 58, of Haringey, north London, stole games including Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary over a 22-month shoplifting spree.
He repeatedly targeted a Waterstone's shop in Crouch End since April 2023, before finally being caught in February this year, the Metropolitan Police said.
Mangal was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Highbury Corner magistrates' court.
He was also banned from being in possession of a suitcase in two areas of Crouch End and Hornsey.
The Met said officers had worked with the bookstore throughout January, collecting CCTV to identify Mangal.
Then on February 23, he entered the shop again and made off with several items in a suitcase.
Mangal, of Hornsey Rise Gardens, was arrested near his home and the next day pleaded guilty to 23 charges of theft.
Sgt James Elliot, of the local policing team in north London, who led the investigation, said: 'Through building strong relationships with staff at this branch of Waterstones, we were able to identify Mangal by assessing his patterns of offending, which appeared to ramp up before, during and immediately after Christmas, then almost daily up until his arrest.'
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