Britain's £1bn shoplifting habit sends demand for security guards skyrocketing as firms crackdown on retail theft and abuse of staff

Britain's £1billion shoplifting epidemic has led to a major spike in demand for security guards as retail chains crackdown on thieves and abusive thugs. 

Phil Bentley, boss of outsourcer Mitie, said he had seen revenues jump due to the need for security guards. 

He said the problem was placing 'unprecedented pressures' on retailers, which were also seeking new technology to catch and prosecute offenders.

The FTSE-listed company employs 7,000 people in retail and helped set up Project Pegasus, which will see chains including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Next share CCTV footage of serial thieves. 

The demand for store security helped Mitie raise its revenues by 11 per cent in the past six months. 

Last week figures from the Co-op revealed almost 300,000 incidents, often involving abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour, at its stores this year.

And the retail giant complained that officers failed to attend to four in five of these incidents, despite promises from forces and ministers to treat shop thefts more seriously.

The shoplifting epidemic often involves organised criminal gangs stealing high-value electricals, alcohol and cigarettes.

The crime has now extended to everyday items from meat, cheese and laundry liquid to nappies and baby formula amid rising living costs.

Co-op said it has seen an average of around 1,000 incidents a day across its 2,400 stores so far this year, which is up by 43 per cent on last year.

These include over 1,130 physical assaults, up 35 per cent, against store workers, and more than 36,000 incidents, up 39 per cent, of anti-social behaviour and abuse.

Co-op's latest data shows that of the near-3,000 occasions this year where specialist security teams detained serious offenders, police failed to show up 76 per cent of the time, leading to a dangerous 'pressure cooker' environment that puts store workers and communities at risk.

The figures were released at the start of Respect for Shopworkers' Week, run by the union USDAW, and come against the background of the launch of a new Government Retail Crime Action Plan.

This includes a commitment that police forces will attend incidents where the offender is detained.

USDAW general secretary, Paddy Lillis, said: 'These Co-op findings on police responses are extremely worrying and need to be addressed, because there is an epidemic of shoplifting that too often triggers abuse of shopworkers.

'We are concerned that successive Government policies give the impression that theft from shops has effectively been decriminalised.

'Underfunding of the police, with too few uniformed officers patrolling our communities; fixed penalty notices for thefts under £200, leading to too few of these crimes being investigated and prosecuted, and the recent announcement that fewer 'low-level offenders' will not be sent to prison.

'Our members are not only in fear of being a victim of crime, they are distressed that too few criminals are being caught and punished. That is why we are jointly calling for a protection of workers law, a standalone offence of assaulting or abusing a worker serving the public.'

The Co-op managing director, Matt Hood, warned there is a long way to go to address the issue of retail crime which has reached record levels with repeat offenders and criminal gangs 'operating exempt from consequences'.

He said: 'We very urgently need to see it in action in our stores, so the desperate calls to the police from my front line colleagues are responded to and the criminals start to realise there are real consequences to their actions.'

The Co-op said there is evidence that police forces which target shoplifting can make a real difference.

He said partnerships this year with forces such as Nottinghamshire, Essex and Sussex have removed 56 prolific offenders off the streets, with a combined 26 years of custodial sentences.

A further 31 repeat offenders were given a Criminal Behaviour Order or rehabilitation.

Inspector Ollie Vale, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'This is not an issue that the Police alone can enforce our way out of, working with our partners both in public sector and retail and understanding the limitations and challenges being faced allows for better results for victims and offenders. The importance of information sharing and working together cannot be emphasised enough.'

Co-op has invested more than £200million over recent years in colleague and store safety and security, including the latest CCTV technology.

These include body-worn cameras, capturing real time audio and visual footage at the touch of a button, as well as dummy or empty packaging to deter looting and bulk-theft.

This week saw the jailing of two members of a gang of Romanian shoplifters who stole goods worth at least £65,000 from Morrisons stores across the UK in a 'sophisticated and organised' operation.

Norwich Crown Court heard how Robert-Claudiu Alexe, 24, and Elena-Brindusa Efta, 35, travelled hundreds of miles to target up to 69 branches of the supermarket chain.

The pair used foil-lined bags to steal high value products worth up to £1,000 a time from Morrisons stores in a seven month spree across 26 counties.

The pair used foil-lined bags to steal goods they could sell on quickly including alcohol, cosmetics, make-up, hygiene products such as razor blades and electric toothbrush heads, Nicorette patches, ink cartridges and batteries.

The court was not told why the gang targeted the retailer which has the slogan 'More Reasons to Shop at Morrisons'.

But their raids became so serious that Morrisons was forced to increase security at stores across the country in a bid to foil them.

It also launched its own major investigation to catch the gang at a cost of more than £22,000, said prosecutor Matthew Edwards.

Alexe and Efta were finally arrested on May 2 this year when they were detained by staff while trying to target the Morrisons store in Dereham, Norfolk.

The court heard that the alarm was raised earlier in the day by security guard who noticed a large quantity of ink had gone missing from the Morrisons store at nearby Fakenham.

Using CCTV footage, he was able to identify the suspects and warned the Dereham store that the offenders could target them next.

Mr Edwards said the identities of two other gang members were known, but they had evaded arrest and were still at large.

The court was told that the full value of what the gang had stolen might never be known.

Mr Edwards said the gang had run a 'sophisticated and organised' operation targeting stores across East Anglia, the north west, Midlands, Yorkshire, Sussex, Humberside, and the south west of the UK

Stores which had shelves stripped bare of some items included branches in Sheffield, Halifax, Skipton, Lincoln, Scunthorpe, Leyland in Lancashire, Keighley in West Yorkshire and Cwmbran in Wales.

Norfolk officers worked with multiple police forces and Morrisons security staff to gather evidence including CCTV to link them with the numerous thefts.

West Midlands Police found goods worth £9,000 including sun cream, beard trimmers, chewing gum, wipes and batteries at Alexe's home in Ardea Court, Coventry, after his arrest.

A search of his car parked at Dereham recovered more than £2,000 worth of stock.

The court heard how the pair were identified as being involved in 47 known thefts from Morrisons stores in 26 different counties.

While in prison on remand, they were quizzed by Norfolk Police's Operation Converter Unit which encourages offenders to admit to further crimes that can be taken into consideration at sentencing. This lead to a further 22 thefts being detected.

Alexe admitted 14 high value thefts of goods worth £27,903, one charge of going equipped to shoplift and one of possessing criminal property between January 26, 2023, and May this year.

He asked for 14 other offences involving goods worth £25,168 to be taken into consideration.

The court was told he had previous convictions of theft in Germany and Denmark.

Efta from Mapperley Drive, Northampton, admitted seven thefts of goods worth £12,064 between October 12, 2022, and May this year, and one count of going equipped.

She asked for eight other offences to be taken into consideration, totalling £8,723 worth of goods stolen from Morrisons.

Recorder John Bate-Williams jailed Alexe for 27 months and Efta for 18 months.

He said their actions had caused distress to staff and customers and large financial losses and reputational damage to Morrisons.

The judge told the pair: 'You two Romanian nationals were part of a gang comprising at least four members who all participated in a large-scale criminal enterprise in which Morrisons supermarkets were targeted all over England and in Wales.

'Goods with substantial values were stolen with careful planning using what seems to have been a kind of distraction technique and foil-lined bags to reduce the risk of detection.

'It's clear that you targeted particular items on the basis that they were going to be straightforward to dispose of and distribute to willing customers.'

Mizan Abdulrouf, defending Alexe, said he had worked in an Amazon warehouse until losing his job during the pandemic.

He added: 'He has done something very stupid that he regrets and he is very remorseful.'

Emma Kutner, defending Efta, said she was a single mother with a seven-year-old son in Romania who had arrived in the UK last year hoping to seek work.

But she was lured into crime after her failure to find a job left her in 'financial desperation', she added.

Following their sentencing. Norfolk Police's Operation Converter supervisor Duncan Etchells said: 'They were first identified as being active in October 2022 and spent months travelling around the UK working together to steal from Morrisons.

'Their operation unravelled after they were stopped by store security in Norfolk. Following extensive research by PC Luke Brown and Rachel Gillett of Morrisons analysing CCTV and closely plotting their movements we have been able to bring these people to justice for all their offending.'

Morrisons declined to comment.