Why is Britain having a shoplifting crisis?
STORY: (James Davey, UK Retail Correspondent)
"Britain has seen a massive increase in retail crime, particularly shoplifting and violence against shop workers over the last 18 months. And it's costing the industry about a billion pounds a year and a similar amount is being spent by the industry in trying to deter this crime."
"It's really driven by three different types. You've got the type of shoplifter who's doing it really out of necessity. And that's been driven by the kind of worsening cost of living crisis. Then you've got your kind of traditional shoplifters fueling fueling drug habits and alcohol addictions. And then you've got the third type, which is a rise in kind of criminal gangs, more organized criminal theft and shoplifting. And it's really that latter group, which has really taken off and driven the growth in retail crime over the last year or so."
"And that's the frustration amongst the shopkeepers and the retail industry and particularly the smaller shopkeepers. One particular one we spoke to in in Croydon in South London. He's been targeted up to 10 times a day by by shoplifters."
(Ben Selvaratnam, Shopkeeper)
"They just stole two bottles of beer. He just came in, he just walked nonchalantly, put it in his bag and the other guy was heading for the meet. So you know this is what we face day in day out."
(James Davey, UK Retail Correspondent)
"It's really happened because the word has got out on the street within the criminal fraternity that you can basically go into a store, steal goods up to £150, £200 in some cases and you won't get prosecuted. The police won't take any action on many, many cases."
(Ben Selvaratnam, Shopkeeper)
"I think people almost believe that shoplifting has been decriminalized. Because they come in, they know that the police response is almost non existent. They know that the police don't treat it as a priority. So that has meant that people are very confident, very brazen in what they steal and when we challenge them they're almost like "what are you gonna do about it?" because they're confident that the police won't come."
(James Davey, UK Retail Correspondent)
"The police say that that it's just not realistic for them to attend every incident of shoplifting and they say that where there's a threat of serious violence, they do the utmost to attend."
Crime is becoming a a big political issue in the UK, with a general election expected next year, which is a problem for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. You know, because the Conservative Party has traditionally been seen as the party of law and order. But current polls show that 3/4 of British adults see the UK government as handling crime badly.
(Ben Selvaratnam, Shopkeeper)
"The impact of shoplifting has definitely had a major impact on the mental health of both my staff and myself. We've had a few staff members hand in their notice earlier this year, my wife is not happy that I work here anymore. So we're almost stuck between a rock and a hard place. We're seeing it though for the time being but every day when you come in there's almost a sense of we don't know what's going to happen."
