UK retailers are warning that crime in their stores is “spiralling out of control” with 55,000 thefts a day and violent and abusive incidents rising by 50% last year.
More than 70 incidents a day involved a weapon, according to the annual crime survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Verbal and physical attacks, violent threats, and sexual and racial abuse in shops soared to more than 2,000 incidents a day in the year to the end of last August, up from 1,300 the previous year and more than three times the 2020 level.
The trade body’s report, based on a sample from retailers representing more than 1.1 million employees, found theft had reached an all-time high with more than 20m incidents during the year, 25% more than the year before. It said this had cost retailers £2.2bn with many more incidents linked to organised crime as gangs systematically targeted stores across the country.
The rise in shoplifting has partly been seen as the result of a squeeze on household finances amid high inflation in recent years, but retailers said the uptick was down to organised gangs stealing to order. They said retail had been seen as a soft target since the 2014 law change in England and Wales which has meant those stealing goods worth less than £200 are usually spared any jail time.
Paul Gerrard, the public affairs director at the Co-op, told the House of Lords justice and home affairs committee inquiry into shoplifting that a 44% rise in retail crime it experienced last year was down to “people coming into stores with wheelie bins or a builder’s bag to steal the entire confectionery section or spirits or meat section”.
Retailers said a lack of priority by police was also to blame as officers often failed to attend, even when private security staff had apprehended someone with stolen goods.
Major retailers have also been accused of fuelling the rise in crime by cutting back the number of staff in stores, including on security, to keep costs down. They have also turned to self-service checkouts and self-scanning devices which are more open to abuse.
However, the BRC said retailers had spent £1.8bn on measures to combat crime including CCTV, additional security guards, anti-theft devices and body-worn cameras, up from £1.2bn the previous year.
Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC, said: “Retail crime is spiralling out of control. People in retail have been spat on, racially abused, and threatened with machetes. Every day this continues, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive. We owe it to the 3 million hardworking people working in retail to bring the epidemic of crime to heel. No one should go to work in fear.”
Dickinson said retailers were looking forward to the implementation of legislation to help tackle shoplifting including removing the £200 threshold for “low level” theft, which has a maximum six-month custodial sentence. The government has also committed to introduce a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker.
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Operation Pegasus, under which 15 large retailers began working with the police under the last government to help tackle organised retail crime, partly by sharing CCTV images, has also had some success but was set up only to deal with activity that crossed police boundaries.
“Only if the industry, government and police work together can we finally see this awful trend reverse,” Dickinson said. “With little faith in police attendance, it is no wonder criminals feel they have licence to steal, threaten, assault and abuse. Retailers are spending more than ever before, but they cannot prevent crime alone. We need the police to respond to and handle every reported incident appropriately.”
Paddy Lillis, the general secretary of the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said communities were being “blighted by antisocial behaviour and store closures” as a rise in theft made shops uneconomical to run in some areas.
“Staff are working in fear of the next incident of abuse, threats or violence,” he said. “We have campaigned along with the BRC for substantial legislative measures to combat this growing problem and we are pleased that the government will be introducing the crime and policing bill, which will meet our aims.”
Source: theguardian.com
