Over £500,000 was pocketed by a prolific thief who made a “full-time job” out of stealing from stores before dishonestly claiming refunds.

Narinder Kaur, also known as Nina Tiara, targeted high street retailers over a thousand times between July 2015 and February 2019, including at Watford’s John Lewis before it closed.

The 53-year-old received £33,131.61 in refunds from 14 John Lewis stores despite only spending £5,290.36 between August 2015 and December 2018. She also got £42,853.65 back from Debenhams despite paying just £3,681.33 over four years.

Watford Observer: Narinder Kaur, also known as Nina Tiara, was convicted of 26 counts.Narinder Kaur, also known as Nina Tiara, was convicted of 26 counts. (Image: CPS)

A close examination of her numerous bank and credit cards revealed she also defrauded multiple Boots stores out of nearly £61,000 having paid just over £5,000.

Kaur, of Chosen Hill in Cleverton, Wiltshire, was convicted this month of all 26 counts of an indictment which included fraud, possessing and transferring criminal property, and perverting the course of justice.

Following the four-month trial, Giovanni D’Alessandro of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Narinder Kaur undertook fraud on a long-standing and wide-ranging manner. It was a very lucrative full-time job which demonstrably made her over half a million pounds over this period of offending.

“She went to extraordinary lengths to carry out her deceptions, seeking to find a way of defrauding a retailer and then travelling all over the country to replicate the fraud.

Watford Observer: She was caught on CCTV targeting numerous retailers.She was caught on CCTV targeting numerous retailers. (Image: CPS)

“She also changed her name legally and opened new bank accounts and credit cards in a second identity to avoid detection.

“She now righty faces a significant sentence for her crimes and the prosecution will look to recoup as many of her ill-gotten gains as the law allows.”

Kaur will be sentenced at a later date.

Get unlimited online Watford Observer access for just £3 for 3 months

Working closely with the police, the CPS was able to prove the case using financial data, retail records, witness evidence and CCTV which proved Kaur’s pattern of offending.

She was seen on CCTV entering stores, taking items from the shelves and taking them to the tills as if they had been previously purchased.

During two police searches of her home, around £150,000 in cash was found hidden away as well as stolen goods.