Shops feel the pinch as hordes of thieves carry on regardless

ENGLAND has gone from being a nation of shopkeepers to a nation of shoplifters with barely an eyebrow being raised.

- Sam Lister

While police find the time to investigate nine-year-old children for playground name-calling, organised crime gangs are clearing shelves without officers even bothering to turn up to speak to victims.

In the time it takes you to read this piece, 115 thefts will have been carried out.

A new report by the British Retail Consortium found there are 55,000 incidents a day a staggering 22% increase and a record high. It said six in 10 retailers view the police response as poor and almost all said one of their main reasons for not reporting a crime is there is no point, as nothing will happen if they do.

But it gets worse. In the last year, 45,000 violent incidents were recorded, with a weapon used in 25,000 of them, a 180% increase on the previous year.

Serious abuse of staff has gone up by 60% to 696,000 incidents. Yet only a third of the violent and abusive cases were reported to police because there was a "lack of expectation that it would make any difference".

Police turned up to just one in 10 reports and only 2% of cases led to a conviction.