Exeter Go Outdoors worker who looted stock told to pay back £60,000

A store supervisor who looted £60,000 worth of clothes, camping and sailing kit from his bosses has been ordered to repay the money or go to jail.

Philip Cook, 26, from Exwick, set up his own online retail business in direct competition to his employers at Go Outdoors and undercut their prices by selling off their own stolen stock at a discount.

The ecology graduate stole so many items from the Exeter store that it became the chain's worst performing outlet and two managers were moved or demoted.

Cook was employed on a minimum wage as a store assistant but given the responsibilities of a supervisor, which enabled him to carry out the large-scale thefts, which some shelves at the shop without any stock.

He stole more than 700 items with a retail price of £75,000 over 18 months including trendy Rab coats, climbing and sailing kit, and sold them thought his own eBay business called Sea Adventures UK.

More than £25,000 worth of stock was found at his Exeter home when it was raided by police and returned to the shop. Cook has now been ordered to repay the balance of what he stole under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Judge Paul Cook approved an agreed order at Exeter Crown Court which assessed his available assets as £150,096.80, and his benefit from crime as £60,000.

He was ordered to repay the £60,000 within three months or go to jail for six months. Go Outdoors will receive £44,484.66 as compensation.

Cook, aged 26, of Westminster Road, Exeter, admitted theft and was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 240 hours unpaid community work at Exeter Crown Court last September.

He is a graduate with a degree in conservation and ecology from Worcester University who worked as a volunteer at Shaldon Zoo and Worcester Wildlife Trust before joining Go Outdoors.

He started stealing after running up £10,000 bank and credit card debts and extending his mortgage to buy a Land Rover.

He spent the money on luxuries like a hot tub, drone, watch, television and other electronic goods and tried to impress women by giving them expensive clothing.

The judge who sentenced him spared him an immediate jail term because Cook was suffering from depression at the time and is now working as a fork lift truck driver.

It was said Cook was lonely and started stealing to buy attention from girls. But two coats with girls name in them were returned to him.