UPSET and tearful after another day of relentless teasing over the holes in her school trousers, 13-year-old Farrah McNutt took matters into her own hands., she slipped into the changing room, tried on a new pair of trousers and brazenly walked out the door, unchallenged by staff.that saw the troubled teen raiding shops on a daily basis and even stealing to order for a gang of so-called friends, up to six years older.
“It is not a victimless crime because store owners lose money they need put food on the table, they may have to let staff go or even close, which has a huge impact on the community.” “When I got away with it I carried on, stealing make-up and clothes, just keeping up with trends at school and trying not to get bullied.At first, Farrah stuck to the odd item but the shoplifting sprees got more and more frequent.“I used to hang around these 19 and 20 year olds and they'd get me to go into the stores and get them stuff, including alcohol.
“I never got paid for it, I just did it because they told me to. They used me. They used to say because I was underage, I’d get in less trouble than them but you can still go to prison for it, or get referred to probation or youth offenders and if you carry on it will really affect your life. “Then I looked into the statistics and I found out 3.3 million thefts went unreported - and I wanted to know why.”“They told me the CCTV wasn’t being used as evidence and said ‘we can't claim off our insurance because the more we claim, the higher our premiums get'.
“They often don't know how much help and support there is out there in terms of food banks, grants and low budget loans.”