Retailers urge police to take tougher action on shoplifting
Figures show that only 431 fines were issued for the offence in the year to March 2024.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Retailers have called for tougher police action on shoplifting after it was revealed that only 431 fines were issued for the offence in a year.
Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that, in the year to March 2014, 19,419 fines were handed out for retail theft under £100.
This decreased year on year to 415 in the year to March 2023, and rose slightly to 431 in the year to March 2024.
Home Office figures show that 2,252 cautions were accepted for shoplifting in the year to March 2024.
In the 12 months to March 2015, there were 279,567 shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales, of which 12,916 resulted in a caution.
Shoplifting hit a 20-year high in the year to March 2024, with 443,995 offences recorded by police in England and Wales.
The most recent figures released for the outcomes of recorded crimes show that, of 436,171 cases of shoplifting, 71,741 led to a criminal charge in the year to March 2024.
The Times, which first highlighted the drop in cautions and fines, reported that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to end the “shameful neglect” by police of shoplifting, and to remove a rule where thefts under £200 are treated as less serious crimes.
“We will remove the £200 threshold, bring in stronger powers to ban repeat offenders from town centres, make assaults on shop workers a specific criminal offence, and, through our neighbourhood policing guarantee, we will put thousands more police on to our streets to crack down on shop theft, anti-social behaviour and the other crimes that blight our communities and make people feel unsafe,” she told the newspaper.
In response to the news, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) called for retail crime to be made a top priority for police.
Shoplifting poses a huge issue to businesses and communities across the country, and inadequate police action has given criminals a free rein to steal goods
Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulatory affairs at the BRC, said: “Shoplifting poses a huge issue to businesses and communities across the country, and inadequate police action has given criminals a free rein to steal goods.
“Our latest crime survey showed losses to theft doubled in the last year to £1.8 billion, and retailers had to spend a further £1.2 billion on anti-crime measures.
“Not only has the number of thefts increased, but thieves are becoming bolder, more aggressive, and more frequently armed with weapons.
“We call on the police to get tough on retail crime and ensure tackling this issue is a high priority in local policing plans.”
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said action is needed to tackle repeat offenders.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Retailers are extremely frustrated with the lack of action taken to stop repeat offenders who target their shops on a regular basis without fear of reproach.
We cannot send a message to prolific offenders that they are not on the police’s radar, because what starts as theft quickly develops into abuse, violence and other serious crime
“While it is not realistic or sensible to expect every thief to be put in prison, it is essential that we find ways to stop reoffending and get to the root cause of that offenders’ motivations.
“At a minimum, this requires thefts, when reported, to be investigated by the police so that the right course of action and intervention to stop reoffending can be taken.
“We cannot send a message to prolific offenders that they are not on the police’s radar, because what starts as theft quickly develops into abuse, violence and other serious crime.”
Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for retail crime, told the Times that, under a crackdown introduced by the previous government last year, officers have committed to attend the scene of every retail crime where violence is used, where a suspect has been caught by security staff, or where only the police can secure relevant evidence.
The NPCC said that between May and August its intelligence team, Opal, had identified 152 people involved in organised retail crime, with 23 arrests made.