A shoplifter was detained by staff as he tried to leave a Colne store with a trolley load of whisky.

Blackburn Magistrates' Court heard security at the town's Sainsbury’s supermarket recovered 46 bottles of whisky, worth £1,610, when they stopped Costel-Lucian Stoian on April 3.

Stoian, 42, who appeared via a video link from Wormwood Scrubs, pleaded guilty to theft and going equipped with a magnetic de-tagger for the purpose of theft.

He was committed in custody to St Alban’s Crown Court where he is due to appear on July 11 for sentence on other high-value shop theft charges.

Henry Prescott, prosecuting, said an undercover security guard saw three males behaving suspiciously and alerted colleagues.

Stoian was pushing a trolley containing two bags for life and the other two men were placing bottles of whisky, namely Johnnie Walker Black Label in the bags.

When he was detained as he left the shop Stoian was found to have a metallic de-tagging device in his pocket, used to remove the security tags attached to bottles of spirits.

Alicia Nottage, mitigating, said her client, of Ilford Lane, Ilford, had pleaded guilty to two similar high-value shoplifting offences and was due to be sentenced at St Alban’s Crown Court.

“It would make sense for all matters to be dealt with at the same time,” she told the court.

The other incidents occurred on April 24 at Tesco in Watford, where he stole £8,000 worth of alcohol from the story, and on April 25, where £1,072 worth of alcohol was stolen from Tesco in Borehamwood.