An ‘overzealous’ security guard at Lidl who broke a shoplifter’s leg as he and his accomplice tried to flee has been spared jail, reports the Metro.
Leandro Da Silva, 28, who was employed at the supermarket in Edinburgh despite having no training, approached David O’Connor and Natasha Robertson after seeing them trying to steal items.
They became ‘verbally abusive’ toward him, at which point a struggle ensued as Leandro attempted to restrain O’Connor. The pair fell to the ground with Leandro on top, with his knee pinning the would-be shoplifter to the ground.
O’Connor’s female accomplice then approached once again, screaming her head off at Leandro to get off O’Connor. Leandro responded by grabbing her by the hand and dragging her on top of O’Connor, pinning them both to the ground underneath him. What a move!
Xander Van Der Scheer, prosecuting, told the court:
‘This effectively resulted in a situation where Mr O’Connor is on the floor, the female shoplifter is on top of him, and the accused is restraining both of them. This pile-up, if I can call it that, has then dissolved.’
Somewhere in all that, O’Connor managed to break his leg (or rather, Leandro broke it for him). A colleague put O’Connor in the recovery position while an ambulance was called, and he was later found to have suffered complex fractures to two bones in his left leg, requiring two rounds of surgery, and deep vein thrombosis.
It was ‘unclear’ from CCTV how the injuries came about during the incident, after which Leandro resigned. His defence team said the security firm which contracted him out to Lidl had given him ‘no training whatsoever’, which isn’t great, and simply told him his job was to ‘stop and apprehend shoplifters’. Um, mission accomplished? In the end he was fined £140 and allowed to go free.
Meanwhile, O’Connor and Robertson both admitted to police they had been in the store to shoplift. Reading the extent of O’Connor’s leg injury, I do actually feel a bit bad for the guy as it’s probably not a punishment that’s proportionate to stealing a few items from Lidl, especially at times like this. At the same time, none of this would have happened to him if he hadn’t attempted to steal from the shop, and he might’ve even provoked it further by becoming verbally abusive once Leandro busted him. Oh well, you live and you learn.
For the north Yorkshire mum who was left ‘crying and shaking’ by the speed of an Aldi cashier, click HERE. Traumatic stuff.
