Neighbourhood police were in the right place at the right time to arrest a shoplifter as he fled from a high street pharmacy in Arnold.
Jason Kelly walked into the Boots store, in Front Street, Arnold, and helped himself to toiletry gift packs on Tuesday (9).
He left the premises without paying but was spotted by shop staff who alerted police.
Armed with a description, patrolling officers who were in the area located the 41-year-old nearby and detained him.
He had carried out very similar raids on the same store on both 6 and 7 December.
Kelly was charged and pleaded guilty to three counts of shop theft at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (10).
Kelly was jailed for six weeks.
Sergeant Alison Riley, of the Gedling North neighbourhood policing team, said: “During the run-up to Christmas, neighbourhood teams are carrying out additional patrols in busy shopping areas.
“Shop staff did exactly the right thing and quickly approached us with a description of this offender.
“Being in the area allowed us to quickly locate him, arrest him, see him charged and placed before the courts.
“We continue to use all the tools at our disposal to tackle shoplifting through targeted patrols, arrests and the use of criminal behaviour orders to ban persistent offenders from hotspot areas.”
