Parcel theft has been highlighted by footage of a suspected thief taking deliveries from homes in Gravesend, Kent, as a prolific offender was jailed for stealing packages from doorsteps in west London.
Ring doorbell recordings shared on social media appear to show the Gravesend man visiting properties and placing items in a Sainsbury’s bag before leaving on a bicycle.
Local residents said he had taken parcels including pizza dough, spider repellent, make-up and Amazon deliveries. The items and the circumstances surrounding the alleged thefts have not been independently verified.
More than £600 million-worth of online orders were stolen from outside homes in 2025, analysts said. That represented an estimated 31 per cent increase on the previous year, although the true scale of the problem is unclear because many missing parcels are not reported to police.
Porch thief jailed after residents share doorbell footage
In a separate case, Ronald De-St-Aubin, 61, was sentenced to 22 months in prison after residents in Parsons Green, west London, collected doorbell footage of him taking packages.
The parcels included children’s clothing, designer clothing, wine, champagne, cosmetics and household goods. Police later found empty packaging at his home in Hammersmith, along with clothing matching what he had been seen wearing on CCTV.
De-St-Aubin initially denied the charges but pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to six counts of theft. The offences took place between July and September 2026.
Among the items stolen was an H&M delivery worth £196.88, containing children’s clothes, summer skirts and bikinis. Four days later, he took three boxes of wine and champagne worth £500 from a home in Parsons Green.
He also stole a Vinted parcel containing an Isabel Marant jacket valued at £60, another package of children’s clothing worth £195.40, and ceiling light fittings valued at £150.
Two days before his arrest, De-St-Aubin took an Amazon parcel containing cosmetics, a kitchen product and a DVD, prosecutors said.
Sentencing him, Judge Martin Edmunds said: “When an expected parcel goes missing, it is certainly inconvenient and may result in significant loss. It impacts on the quality of all of our lives.”
He added that thieves did not know “what was in” the parcels or “the level of harm” they might inflict on those who had ordered them.
“In some instances, the retailer will cover the loss, and in other instances the loss falls on the householder,” the judge said. “Either way, there is significant loss and where that falls on businesses it leads to higher prices for us all, and with smaller vendors, a real impact on their viability.”
De-St-Aubin, a father of two who relies on benefits and has a history of drug use, has 41 previous convictions. He had been convicted of breaking into a skateboard shop four weeks before the parcel thefts and had initially received a community order.
His barrister, Tamasin Graham, said he had “a pattern of acquisitive offending spanning over decades” which began when he was 13 in 1978.
Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells, of the Metropolitan Police, said De-St-Aubin had been identified from CCTV and arrested as he left his flat. A GPS tag he was wearing as part of a previous community order showed he had been in the relevant areas when the thefts were committed.
“We know that parcel theft causes real concerns in our communities – and I hope this case demonstrates that brazen criminality of the kind De-St-Aubin committed will not be tolerated,” he said.
