Carol McGiffin speaks out on ‘shoplifting spree’ and being taken home by police

Carol McGiffin has revealed she started shoplifting when she was just three years old – and less than a decade later, she was caught and taken home by the police. The 63-year-old Loose Women star made the candid admission in a new column for Best magazine, during which she admitted the police interrogation put her off shoplifting for life. “I started shoplifting at a very young age. When I was three, I used to pop along to Woolworths and steal mouth organs and stash them in the cupboard,” she exclaimed. At age 12, she and a group of friends targetted Woolworths again for a “Christmas shoplifting spree”, when stern-faced staff found “Sellotape and a pottery horse” stashed away in her bag. “The police were called and took me home, where they proceeded to scare the pants off me with threats of a criminal record, which would probably have ruined my life. I never did it again,” the TV personality declared. Carol McGiffin opened up on her shoplifting past (Image: BEST MAGAZINE) However, she was astonished to read more recently about a subsequent change in the law, meaning that the worst a shoplifter could face was “a fixed penalty fine by post of £70”. “When I read the headline ‘Shoplifters must face law, even for sub-£200 crimes’, I did a double take. What? So as long as you tot up your haul as you go and keep it under 200 quid, you’re good to go? Yes,” the shocked star exclaimed. Carol believes that thieving from stores has now effectively been “decriminalised” and has urged that it should be taken more seriously to prevent the “epidemic” escalating any further. She added that she didn’t blame the police, describing them as “massively understaffed” and facing pressure to “prioritise politically motivated offences”. Loose Women’s Carol McGiffin gave her political opinion on the matter (Image: ITV) “They don’t have time to go after shoplifters,” she reasoned. Carol’s column in Best magazine, where she discusses what’s new in the world of politics, celebrities and anything in between, is one of the things that’s been keeping her busy since her departure from Loose Women. Back in May, she’d sparked controversy after arguing her belief that news organisations were “brainwashing” the public about Covid . Soon after an on-screen rant, she stopped appearing on the show , adding in her column that she felt she’d had to “step away” from it. Carol McGiffin’s recent holiday snap with Loose Women’s Denise Welch (Image: INSTAGRAM) She spoke of an “unworkable” contract that ITV had requested her to sign, and said she turned it down. “I know it looks like I’ve thrown my toys out of the pram, but the whole saga was affecting my health. It’s not really that I’ve left, I’m just not doing it at the moment,” she added. She has since reunited with co-star Denise Welch , posting a holiday pic in bikinis where the pair had jokingly declared they’d be creating content for “OnlyNans” . Carol’s new column for Best magazine is out this week.