BBC Information Investigations
Retail crime is “uncontrolled” and shoplifters are finishing up more and more brazen and violent acts of theft as a result of they don’t concern any penalties, an trade physique has informed the BBC.
In some circumstances, offenders are overtly clearing cabinets of things in full view of consumers and store employees – a tactic generally referred to as “kamikaze” shoplifting.
Within the 12 months to September final yr, incidents of buyer theft within the UK rose by 3.7 million to twenty.4 million, and value retailers £2bn.
The figures had been revealed at the moment within the annual crime survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents greater than 200 main retailers.
Based on the BRC, violence and abuse in opposition to shopworkers additionally rose by 50%, with greater than 2,000 such incidents recorded on common per day.
It says its survey was based mostly on a pattern of shops representing over 1.1 million workers and a market turnover of greater than £194bn.
In a single “kamikaze” incident final month at a telephone retailer in London’s Oxford Avenue, two males spent minutes kicking down a telephone stand in entrance of consumers and store employees.
It’s believed the telephone stand contained dummy telephones which might then have been offered on-line to unsuspecting clients, tricked into believing they had been shopping for the true factor.
The Metropolitan Police stated officers responded to the incident and carried out a search of the world. They had been unable to find the suspects, although they had been captured on video. An investigation has since been launched.
Shoplifting is commonly pushed by organised gangs and prolific offenders stealing to order, in accordance with Helen Dickinson, the BRC’s chief government.
She stated offenders had been turning into extra daring as a result of “they do not see that there is essentially any penalties”.
“It is outrageous and uncontrolled in lots of components of the nation.”
Social media is full of movies of shoplifting, generally in entrance of store employees and safety officers who don’t seem to step in.
Ms Dickinson stated store employees are sometimes suggested to not intervene as a result of they run a threat of being attacked.
Store proprietor Amit Puntambekar stated he was punched within the face by a younger lady he suspected of stealing £75 price of vapes from his Cambridgeshire retailer earlier this yr.
He believes the variety of violent incidents has worsened over the previous three years and has made him think about quitting the enterprise, which has been in his household for almost 40 years.
“I do not wish to die at work,” he stated. “When your employees are threatened with a hammer, when somebody threatens to kill you who lives close to your store and the police do not take it severely, what is the level?”
Criminals know the regulation is comfortable on shoplifting, Mr Puntambekar believes, so suspects are finishing up crimes in plain sight.
Cambridgeshire Police stated a 17-year-old lady has been charged with widespread assault and theft from a store following the incident and can seem in court docket on 5 February.
Amenities administration agency Mitie provides 10,000 safety guards to the UK retail sector. It stated 10% of those had been injured within the line of responsibility in 2024.
Based on its safety director, Jason Towse, shoplifters have change into extra fearless as a result of police sources have change into extra targeted on “high-profile” crime.
“The principle subject for why persons are utilizing that ‘kamikaze’ method is to scare colleagues and scare the employees,” he stated. “In addition they know that the response from the police is just not what it was once.”
Safety guards do not need extra powers than different residents to apprehend shoplifters. However Mr Towse says they’re educated in how greatest to establish and reply to points. They will additionally act as a visual deterrent and share knowledge and proof with the police.
We requested 10 main retailers what their employees insurance policies had been for coping with shoplifters finishing up violent or aggressive theft.
A number of stated the protection of employees and clients was a precedence, and added that they’d invested in safety measures together with CCTV, body-worn cameras, and a rise in safety guards.
Shoplifting provides £133 to the price of a mean UK family’s buying invoice every year, in accordance with the Centre for Retail Analysis.
In 2023, the federal government launched a scheme that set out steering for police on tackling the difficulty – together with prioritising attending violent incidents or the place an offender has been caught.
Undertaking Pegasus – an intelligence-sharing partnership between retailers and policing – was additionally set as much as deal with tackling shoplifting gangs and prolific offenders.
In response to the BRC survey, Dwelling Workplace Minister Dame Diana Johnson has known as the rise in store crime “completely unacceptable”.
She has additionally repeated a authorities pledge to usher in a brand new particular offence for assaulting retail employees – one thing the retail trade has been calling for since 2020.
It could assist make clear the scale of the issue and permit statistics to be collected, says the BRC.
Helen Dickinson says the newest file ranges of shoplifting ought to function a “wake-up name” to the federal government and the police.
“The concern of consequence is simply not there and I feel that is why we have to see extra sources and extra focus by the police,” she says.
Jason Towse says there’s extra work to do however thinks that steps being taken throughout the trade are beginning to result in outcomes.
“Finally when shoplifters begin to see the degrees of consequence increasingly than we’re seeing at the moment… that can actually change the tide.”