Shoplifter Ross, who had been convicted of shoplifting 15 times but had never been to prison, regularly sold the items to other stores or to middlemen who then resold the goods, including alcohol, food and clothing.
Ross estimated that he stole £300 worth of goods every day, which he then resold to finance his drug addiction.
He said he would regularly steal and resell it “as the cheapest wholesaler.”
In his most recent conviction for shoplifting in May, he received a suspended sentence at Leeds Magistrates Court.
Ross said he not only sold the goods directly to shops across Leeds, but also stole them on behalf of a so-called middleman who then resold them.
“If I had a bag full of things, I would know which store to go to,” he said
“They took me into the back room, I put it on the floor and we negotiated the price.”
The 39-year-old told the BBC he had been clean for five months and was “ashamed” of his behaviour, which he attributed to the “desperation” of his addiction.
The investigation follows analysis by The Times which found that just 431 shoplifters received a fine notice in the 12 months to March, a 98% drop on the previous year when 19,419 notices were issued.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told the BBC there was a “growing trend of unscrupulous companies taking over local products that have been stolen to order”.
