EXCLUSIVE Shocking moment 'slick' girl gang of shoplifters steal £1,800 from pharmacy and shove employee aside as they make their escape
The group were caught on CCTV slipping several bottles of the expensive perfumes into their bags, and running off on Thursday afternoon.
Dipak Raja, 36, who owns Forward Pharmacy in Mile End, told MailOnline the theft was 'sickening'.
He added that he and his staff had been left distressed' by the incident and constantly on edge.
In the clip, the girl gang can be seen appearing to browse the perfume shelves, pointing at various different products and discussing something among themselves.
One of the girls then brazenly open up the cabinet and begins pulling out bottles of the expensive perfumes and piling them in to her bag.
As the girls finish filling up their bags, a pharmacist comes over and confronts the girls, attempting to block the exit before being shoved aside.
While two members of the shoplifting gang escape from the community pharmacy, two of the others turned around and exchanged words with members of staff before walking out.
The group were then followed out of the shop by three staff members including Mr Raja.
The pharmacy revealed the thieves made off with perfumes worth £1,800 and they had only just re-stocked, spending a small fortune.
Mr Raja described how the group of girls came in to the pharmacy and fiddled with the lock on a secure glass cabinet he had only recently had fitted, containing expensive designer perfumes.
They stole multiple gift packs worth around £100 each from brands including Paco Rabane and Dior and Mr Raja said the Dior Sauvage gift set cost at least £120.
He added that one of his colleagues, Saarah, who had only started the week before, had tried to confront the girls about the theft but was shoved against the door frame.
It was at this point that he and another colleague came forward to see the commotion and rang the police as they followed three of the girls to the tube station.
The pharmacy owner described the operation as 'slick', explaining that while he and the other pharmacy workers had followed three of the gang to the tube station, the one with the bag of perfumes had run off in a different direction.
Mr Raja said he believed they had done this before because they knew exactly what they were looking for.
'They knew what they were doing, they caused a commotion so we couldn't tell who had the perfumes and they went for all the expensive ones,' he said.
The 36-year-old added that he had found the whole experience 'traumatising and really distressing' and said the pharmacy no longer felt safe.
He told MailOnline: 'The community feel has gone and we're all on edge now. If there are two people in the pharmacy we just try and serve them as quickly as possible to get them out so we can watch what's going on.'
He revealed he has also hired a security guard for the front of the shop to deter further thefts.
He also confessed that his pharmacy is plagued by shoplifters but said he had never experienced anything on this level before.
He told MailOnline: 'We get theft all the time but usually only £50 or £100 - never anything on this scale.'
Mr Raja added that while he had reported the incident to the police he wasn't confident anything would be done and said: The police in East london, they just do anything about it, we get it all the time and it's really bad.'
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