BRITAIN FACES ‘EPIDEMIC’ OF SHOPLIFTING AS THEFT BECOMES “QUITE ORGANISED”

Wed 13  September 2023:

Retail bosses and store owners are calling for immediate action to stop the epidemic of stealing that is sweeping Britain’s high streets, Reuters reported.

According to the CEO of retailer John Lewis, as the owner of the Primark fashion chain joined industry calls for authorities to tighten down on the problem, claiming that profit margins were suffering.

Shopkeepers and retail bosses want police and the courts to do more to protect staff and bring prosecutions after 87% of convenience store staff said thieves had verbally abused them. Shoplifting is estimated to cost retailers almost £1billion a year. The British Retail Consortium said there were around eight million incidents in the 12 months to March. Police recorded 339,206 cases, with just 48,218 of these incidents resulting in charges.

“It’s become an epidemic. Sadly, in the last year we’ve seen twice as many offences,” Sharon White, chair of the John Lewis Partnership that owns department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, told BBC Radio.

On Monday, White called for the UK government to set up a commission to examine the problems faced by town centres, saying they risked becoming “a looting ground for emboldened shoplifters and organised gangs.”

On Tuesday, George Weston, the CEO of Primark-owner Associated British Foods, said the fashion chain had stepped up spending on security guards, CCTV and on equipping staff with body cameras to try to combat in-store theft.

“But we need to emphasise, as others have emphasised, the role of the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and magistrates in tackling this problem which is just getting steadily worse,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“They are doing more, but it’s not enough yet.”

Weston said some of the theft was “quite organised” and Primark was also seeing higher levels of anti-social behaviour.

His comments echo those of Tesco CEO Ken Murphy, who earlier this month said Britain’s biggest supermarket chain was offering body-cams to staff who need them.

Murphy also called for a change in the law to make abuse and violence towards retail workers a specific offence in Britain.

Retailers complain that police do not attend two-thirds of shoplifting cases, and say it is not putting would-be thieves off. Under the shake-up, thieves who plead guilty by post can be given a fine and not have to appear in court.

Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, told The Mirror: “Shop theft is not new but years of low prioritisation by the police have allowed it to become a low-risk, high-reward crime, now involving very organised elements.” 

Some people think the rising cost of living and skyrocketing prices are somewhat to blame for the increase in theft, but retail expert Scott Dixon said the issue is primarily due to shoplifters growing more brazen. He said: “It is worse than ever. Shoplifters know the odds are stacked in their favour and are becoming bolder. Shoplifting has effectively been decriminalised.