Security staff 'forced to free arrested shoplifters'

Police ignore 80% of cases where culprit caught - Co-op boss

- Natasha Wynarczyk

A SUPERMARKET boss has told how undercover security guards are catching shoplifters - but have to let them go because police will not turn up.

The Co-op has hired highly-trained guards often former military or police staff to work covertly in stores that have a big theft problem.

Paul Gerrard, the chain's campaigns and public affairs director, is calling for tougher enforcement, just weeks after Home Secretary Suella Braverman demanded police investigate every theft.

He said of the Co-op guards: "They will intervene and make a citizen's arrest and detain the individual.