£9.2m-a-month cost of shoplifting... with 48% rise in offences

Anthony France Crime Correspondent SHOPLIFTING is estimated to cost London £9.2 million every month, the Evening Standard can reveal today with new figures showing a 48 percent spike in offences.

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Brazen thieves have burst in to stores with wheelie bins, suitcases and holdalls to clear shelves of items. Staff who try to intervene are subjected to racist and sexist slurs, threats, and violence.

One Co-op store in inner London was looted three times in one day by organised gangs. Matt Hood, its food managing director, described the crime wave as "out of control".

Retailers are said to be so demoralised by perceived police inaction that they don't even bother to report nine in 10 incidents, the Standard found. According to data obtained by this newspaper, 55,860 shoplifting offences were recorded across London in the past year, an increase of 48.3 per cent on the previous 12 months- and nearly double the 25 per cent rise nationally. But only 3,462 of the London crimes were solved, just six per cent.