Tougher sentences are needed to end shoplifting scourge

SHOPLIFTING is costing high street stores a staggering £2.2billion a year and it's an affront to hardworking families who ultimately pay the bill in price rises that criminal gangs are able to stroll out of stores with armfuls of stolen goods.

- Tim Newark

This gross unfairness is just one of the most blatant aspects of Britain's lawlessness crisis.

Some 530,643 offences were logged last year, an astonishing 20% rise on the previous 12 months. Frankly, thieves are seeing very little deterrence and it's quite right that the Daily Express has launched a campaign to insist on police officers attending every single shoplifting incident. It will certainly help halt opportunist and first-time thieves. There's nothing more sobering than a uniformed officer, after all.

But it will also help reassure storekeepers who are often left alone to deal with increasingly violent offences committed against their employees. More than one in ten retail staff have been threatened with weapons over the last year. Thames Valley police commissioner Matthew Barber recently suggested shopkeepers should tackle thieves directly, but the real risk of injury is also matched by police frequently blaming have-a-go-heroes for assaulting criminals.