Shoplifting has surged to another record high with nearly half a million offences recorded last year, new figures reveal – as retailers warned that 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.
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 three 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 was 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 prior to the pandemic.
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.”
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