Shoplifting offences rise to highest level on record

Shoplifting offences have risen to the highest level on record, new data revealed today. 

A total of 430,104 offences were recorded by police in the year to December 2023, up 37% from 315,040 in the previous 12 months.

This is the highest figure since current police recording practices began in the year ending March 2003. according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The number of offences involving theft from the person stood at 125,563 in 2023, up 18% from 106,606 in 2022, and is the highest level since 2004 (137,154).

Retail bosses have accused police chiefs of effectively decriminalising shoplifting, with many forces rarely responding to reports of thefts and failing to gather any evidence if they do. 

Commenting on the latest crime figures for England and Wales, Nick Stripe of the Office for National Statistics said: 'In the past 12 months, police recorded crime shows notable increases in robbery, theft from the person and shoplifting.

'The latter has risen by more than 100,000 offences, while the police have been dealing with the highest levels of theft from the person offences recorded in two decades.

'While levels of headline crime measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales remain relatively stable, there are variations when looking at individual crime types.

'The survey indicates that incidents of fraud and criminal damage are both decreasing, but computer misuse has been on the rise.'

This week shoppers were left stunned after they spotted a £2 chocolate bar locked inside a security box in a Co-op supermarket in Codsall, Staffordshire. 

Co-op isn't the only chain resorting to extreme measures to combat thieves, with a Tesco branch in Theydon Bois, Essex, even putting security tags on shopping baskets due to a rise in the number of people helping themselves to 'five-finger discounts'.

Shopper James Beach, 45, was surprised to see the security measure in place during a recent trip to the store.

Another Tesco in Bristol has started checking customers on CCTV before letting them into the store in a 'nightclub-style door policy'.

The branch in Southville has also moved their shopping baskets away from the doors to stop thieves piling them up with shopping and running out.

It leaves the automatic doors shut until customers are viewed on camera to see if they are suspected or well-known thieves.

Staff say the 'nightclub-style door policy' is in operation between 6am and 9am and in the late evenings when no security guards are on duty.

Separate figures that emerged earlier this month show convenience store thefts have soared to 5.6million from 1.1million in just one year.   

Figures from the Association of Convenience Stores also revealed that there were 76,000 acts of violence in small shops last year, up from 41,000.

Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium said thefts cost retailers £1.8billion in 2022-23, up from £953million the previous year. 

Richard Inglis, who runs a chain of Co-op stores in Hampshire, said police had told him they would not investigate shoplifting offences unless the theft is over £200, there is clear CCTV and the criminal's full name is known.

Mr Inglis said: 'It used to be a police officer would have come down, taken a statement and CCTV. But as they have cut back on resources we have to do our own statements now and upload the CCTV to a system and those cases are then reviewed.

'The burden of proof we have to provide now is so extreme.

'I have been told by the police that the value of the stock has to be over £200 and if I don't know their name and don't have a clear shot of their face on CCTV then it won't get to court.

'If not they will take it as a report but would mark it up as no further action, then it just becomes a statistic but nothing is going to be done. They basically told me it's not the right use of resources.

'Most of the police we deal with want to do more but they know it's a waste of their time if it just gets filed further up the line or if it gets to court and the court don't do anything.

'They've decriminalised these things and that has caused it to increase, there's no deterrent.'

Last year a senior Co-op executive revealed specially trained security staff were regularly catching shoplifters only to have to let them go because police were ignoring 80 per cent of cases.

Paul Gerrard said the chain had invested in undercover security guards who perform citizen's arrests on thieves.

But Mr Gerrard - who used to work in law enforcement - admitted that in the majority of cases they had to be let go because officers never turn up.

'These are highly trained expert guards - often ex-police and ex-forces - who work undercover in stores where there's a particular problem,' he told MailOnline.

'They will intervene and make a citizen's arrest and detain the individual. But even in those cases when we've detained an offender and called for police assistance the police don't attend in 80 per cent of cases.'