**Former Shoplifter Reveals How She Stole £30 Million Worth of Goods Over Two Decades**
One of the UK’s most prolific shoplifters has stepped forward to recount her extraordinary story, shedding light on two decades spent in a relentless cycle of theft, addiction and recovery. Keeley Knowles, now 42 and living in Kings Heath, Birmingham, says she amassed an estimated £30 million from stolen goods—an amount few in law enforcement or retail could have guessed was possible from a single career criminal.
Keeley’s story is both shocking and instructive. At her height, she would target high-end shops across the Birmingham area, making off with designer garments, handbags, and luxury items. Her methods were audacious and cleverly devised; Knowles recounts filling specially adapted coats with vast amounts of stock, sometimes concealing so much that she required a trolley to transport her haul. She estimates on her best days, she could pilfer between £7,000 and £8,000 worth of goods.
But far from keeping these items for herself, Keeley quickly funnelled them through a thriving black-market network. Utilising platforms such as WhatsApp, she established a direct line to eager buyers—some 150 strong—who would snap up the latest loot within hours. “I’d take photos of what I’d just stolen, sometimes still on the bus or train, and before I was halfway home it would be sold,” she explained. “I even knew when people’s pay days were and what their favourite designers were.”
Keeley’s success as a shoplifter hinged on more than just bravado; she developed sophisticated means to sidestep store security. Disguising herself as a police officer, she would telephone shops under the pretence of investigating past thefts, and deftly extract information about security staff schedules. “You’d be amazed what people would say if you asked the right questions in the right way,” Keeley recalled.
Her criminal enterprise wasn’t born from mere greed. Keeley vividly describes how her heroin addiction fuelled her need to commit crime. As her dependency escalated, she found herself spending up to £1,000 per day on drugs, which only increased the pressure to steal. “My addiction controlled everything,” she states. “I only ever had two days off a year—Christmas Day and Good Friday, when the shops were closed.”
Keeley’s introduction to this lifestyle was both early and tragic. She maintains that she fell into addiction at the age of 13, influenced by an older man and an absence of parental guidance. Raised by grandparents who did not grasp the severity of her troubles, she soon became involved in more serious criminal activities, including drug trafficking in her teens.
Life behind bars became a grim routine. By her own account, Keeley has been incarcerated 28 times in the UK and several more in Amsterdam, gaining notoriety amongst both police and shop security. Some stores suggest that, over the years, she alone cost them millions in losses.
Despite a past dominated by criminality and substance abuse, Keeley insists her life has now taken a positive turn thanks to a pioneering addiction recovery treatment in the West Midlands. With the help of the Offending to Recovery programme, she has remained drug-free for 18 months. The turning point, she says, was not a dramatic revelation but a slow acceptance that change was possible. A crucial step in her recovery involved the drug Buvidal, a slow-release opioid blocker, which she claims ended her cravings overnight.
Now, Keeley is determined to use her experiences to help others. She works in outreach with West Midlands Police, supporting current addicts on their recovery journeys and speaking openly about her past. Her efforts recently earned her a National Business Crime Solutions award, and she has reconnected with her family as part of her ongoing rehabilitation.
Keeley’s message for those still battling addiction is clear: “If I can come through this, so can anyone. No one is beyond helping if they’re given the right support.” Her story, though sobering, serves as both a warning about the destructive cycle of drug addiction and a testament to the power of recovery.