Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Shoplifting soars in England and Wales by staggering amount

Police recorded the equivalent of 1,350 shoplifting offences every day in the year to September 2024, new Office for National Statistics figures show

Andy Gregory
Thursday 30 January 2025 09:40 EST
Shoplifting offences soared to a new record high in England and Wales in the year to September 2024, according to the ONS
Shoplifting offences soared to a new record high in England and Wales in the year to September 2024, according to the ONS (Getty/iStock)

Shoplifting has surged to another record high with nearly half a million offences recorded last year, new figures reveal – as retailers warned crime in shops is “spiralling out of control”.

With such offences already hitting their highest level last year since records began in the year to March 2003, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed shoplifting crimes have continued to increase in England and Wales.

There were 492,914 shoplifting offences recorded by police in the year to September, which was up 23 per cent from 402,482 in the previous 12 months prior and is equivalent to 1,350 such crimes every day.

The alarming figures came as a separate survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that incidents of retail crime – including racial and sexual abuse, physical assault and threats with weapons – have reached three times the level they were in 2020.

There were more than 2,000 incidents a day over the past year, including 70 per day involving a weapon, which is more than double the previous year, the BRC said.

Some 61 per cent of respondents described the police response to incidents as “poor” or “very poor”, although 3 per cent described it as “excellent” – the first time in five years that any retailers have rated it as such.

Theft also reached an all-time high with more than 20 million incidents – or over 55,000 a day – costing retailers £2.2bn, up from £1.8bn the previous year.

Graph shows police-recorded shoplifting offences in England and Wales
Graph shows police-recorded shoplifting offences in England and Wales (PA Graphics)

Gangs systematically targeted stores across the country, stealing tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods and rotating around multiple stores, the BRC’s survey found.

“Retail crime is spiralling out of control. People in retail have been spat on, racially abused, and threatened with machetes,” said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.

“Every day this continues, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive. We owe it to the 3 million hard-working people working in retail to bring the epidemic of crime to heel. No one should go to work in fear.”

More broadly, the ONS said its latest crime survey indicated a 12 per cent rise in incidents of headline crime – including theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud and violence – over the past year, when there were an estimated 9.5 million incidents.

This was mainly fuelled by a 19 per cent rise in fraud, of which there were close to four million incidents – a level similar to that last seen before the pandemic.

Knife crime and robbery offences have increased, according to the Office for National Statistics
Knife crime and robbery offences have increased, according to the Office for National Statistics (Katie Collins/PA)

Dr Billy Gazard of the ONS said: “Although crime has increased over the past year, it is still below pre-pandemic levels. The level of most crime types recorded by the crime survey remains unchanged. The recent rise has been driven by a significant increase in fraud, notably bank and credit account, and consumer and retail fraud.

“Police-recorded crime paints a varied picture. While homicide and firearms offences have fallen, recorded knife crime and robbery have increased.

“Shoplifting offences continue to rise, reaching almost half a million in the year ending September 2024, the highest figure since current police recording practices began.”

According to the ONS, incidents of knife-enabled crime recorded by the police rose by 4 per cent to hit 55,008 offences in the year to September 2024. These figures remained below pre-pandemic levels, however, and do not include Greater Manchester or Devon and Cornwall.

And provisional NHS hospital admissions data suggested a 3 per cent decrease in the number of people admitted after being assaulted with a sharp object in the year to September 2024, which totalled 3,735 and was down 22 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

The latest figures come after peers on the House of Lords justice and home affairs committee wrote to policing minister Dame Diana Johnson in November to warn that shop theft was “seriously underreported and not being tackled properly”.

The following month, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) announced a squad set up to stem the rising tide of shoplifting – dubbed Operation Pegasus – had arrested 93 members of organised crime gangs behind retail theft in seven months.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in