The Angel Police team tracked down stolen stock and returned it to two of our biggest retailers by marking it with SmartWater invisible unique coding system - after staff suspected cosmetics from Boots and best-sellers from Waterstones were being sold to local market stalls.

Police have now issued a warning to stallholders to avoid buying cheap goods they suspect may have been stolen. Anyone handling stolen goods can be arrested and may get up to 14 years in prison if convicted, losing their license to trade.

“This was a brilliant operation – it caught shoplifters, returned our stock and sent out a warning to anyone buying stolen goods,” says Boots team manager Kalai Senathirajah.

Waterstones manager Farah Taylor added: “We suspected the £1000s of books we were losing were being sold locally. The Angel Police Team were very pro-active and intelligent about the whole operation.”

If someone is regularly stealing from your business, contact the Angel Police Team.