He’s a shopkeeper’s nightmare
Oliver Astley Content editor
17:59, 17 Jun 2025
Anton Varga stole £750 of meat during a two-week shoplifting spree (Image: Avon and Somerset Police )
A one-man crimewave who went on a two-week shoplifting rampage has been jailed for 12 months, just 24 hours after being arrested. Anton Varga, of Staple Hill, in South Gloucestershire, stole meat worth £750 and other items from a number of different shops.
Varga, a notorious shoplifter, had been hit with a five-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) in January this year after stealing from five supermarkets over ten days.
He appears to have largely ignored the CBO, entering shops from which he had been banned and has now been given a much longer stretch behind bars.
Magistrates in Bristol today, Tuesday, June 17, jailed Varga for a total of 12 months after he admitted his latest string of offences. Officers from Avon and Somerset Police’s South Gloucestershire neighbourhood policing team arrested the 38-year-old thief yesterday, Monday, June 16. In court he admitted 17 thefts from shops, one assault of a member of public in a shop and one of a member of store staff, all between May 30 and June 14, 2025.
In those two weeks he stole items including meat worth more than £750, toiletries and laundry products from seven different shops in Downend, Fishponds, Lodge Causeway, Lyde Green, Mangotsfield and Staple Hill.
At today’s hearing, Varga also entered guilty pleas to nine counts of breaching his five-year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) imposed by the court in January 2025.
These breaches included entering shops from which he was banned.
Anton Varga stole £750 of meat during a two-week shoplifting spree (Image: Avon and Somerset Police )
Neighbourhood Sergeant Richard Humphrey said: “We know the impact of repeated thefts, threats and assaults on shop staff and we’re determined to target offenders who persistently commit crime and cause harm in our communities. “The sentence of 52 weeks – the maximum available to magistrates – was imposed for breaching the CBO, with jail terms for the other offences to run concurrently.
“This shows the effect such orders can have.”