TWO men and a woman have been sentenced for their part in a series of high value shoplifting incidents at Wrexham stores.

Florian Mihai and Vasile Sima, both of Lord Street in Walsall, appeared for sentence at Caernarfon Crown Court on Wednesday - as did co-defendant Ana-Maria Mihai, of Greenhill Road in Birmingham.

Sima, aged 55, had previously admitted two counts of theft from shop.

Whereas 43-year-old Florian Mihai had admitted three counts of theft from shop and Ana-Maria Mihai, aged 27, admitted two.

Emmalyne Downing, prosecuting, told the court there are three other defendants in relation to the spate of shoplifting offences.

One of them (22-year-old Vivi Ionela Nastur, of no fixed abode) has already been sentenced in the Magistrates Court to a total of eight weeks imprisonment, and two (22-year-old Alexandru Florin Mihai and 40-year-old Florina-Luminita Mihai of no fixed abode) are to be sentenced on July 24 after having admitted their involvement.

Setting out the five incidents and the involvement of each of the defendants, Ms Downing explained the first occurred on April 4 this year at Plas Coch Sainsbury's.

Security staff at the store noticed the Nicorette display had been emptied and a number of security tags had been left on an adjacent shelf.

CCTV revealed Vasile Sima, Florian Mihai and Florina Mihai committing the theft, which equated to a value a £1,756.

The next offence happened that same day, when Florian Mihai went into Boots at Plas Coch with Florina Mihai and took £1,000 worth of skincare products.

On April 24, security at the same Boots store were made aware Florian Mihai, Florina Mihai and Vasile Sima had entered the premises and taken numerous items collectively worth £2,217.52.

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They were seen to get into a blue VW Passat vehicle, which was reported to and stopped by the police.

The three were in the vehicle, as were various Boots products.

Importantly, also found was a list of post codes which when checked, led to other Boots stores.

Another of the shoplifting incidents happened on the same day at the same store, when Vivi Nastur, Ana-Maria Mihai and Alexandru Mihai had concealed goods and left without paying.

They also left the scene in a VW Passat - but this was a separate vehicle, and was also stopped.

When searched, cosmetics worth £2,204.30 were found in various bags.

It was also discovered that those three defendants had stolen skincare products worth £792.39 from Boots at Eagles Meadow that same day.

Ms Downing asked the court to consider imposing costs of £300 on each defendant.

She added: "I would make an application for compensation, but the police haven't responded to my email so I can't."

The three defendants' Barristers made few representations after hearing Judge Nicola Saffman's intention to give each of them a suspended sentence.

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The Judge initially intended to ban the defendants from entering Wales for one year, but opted not to after John Wyn Williams, defending Sima, raised concerns about such a "blanket" ban.

The Judge then announced her plan to ban the defendants from all Boots stores in the UK.

But Ioana Nedelcu, defending Ana-Maria Mihai, told the court her client has a young baby and she feared the exclusion from Boots may impact on her if she needed to attend the store.

She added her client had already been on remand for more than five weeks - which is the equivalent of a 10 week custodial sentence.

Richard Edwards, defending Florian Mihai, said his client had been on remand for eight weeks, equivalent to a 16 week jail term.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the Judge opted to "wipe the slate clean," and after giving the defendants credit for their pleas, as well as factoring in time already on remand, handed each of them a three week immediate custodial sentence.

The sentences should mean they are immediately released given the time already served.

Each defendant must pay £300 costs and a £154 victim surcharge.