Cross-dressing businessman jailed for stealing £119,000 of Marks and Spencer underwear

A finance director has been jailed for 16 months for stealing women's clothing – including underwear – from Marks & Spencer.

David O'Connell, aged 48, was handed the sentence at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, after pleading guilty to two counts of theft from the popular store.

The court heard that O'Connell had taken 6,400 items of women's clothing from the high street chain, worth around £119,000.



O'Connell, of Bank Street, Tunstall, was caught shoplifting at Marks & Spencer in Fosse Park, Leicester, in April last year. When police searched his home, at that time in Coventry, they found an "Aladdin's cave" of thousands of items, including underwear, stored in wardrobes and boxes – many with their store tags still on.

Judge Simon Hammond said: "He has a sexual fetish in relation to female clothing.
The irony is this: the defendant could have bought this clothing himself. What he does in his private business is no concern to the court."

The court heard that O'Connell, who trained as an accountant but did not qualify, had suffered abuse as a child.