Shoplifting hits record high of nearly 500,000 offences

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”.

- ANDY GREGORY

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.