A report on ITV’s Tonight reveals that shoplifting on an industrial scale is costing our retailers nearly half a billion pounds a year and forcing up prices for customers
Targeting high-value goods, thieves are clearing entire shelves, often stealing to order. Dr Emmeline Taylor, a broadcaster and professor of criminology, says: “It’s hugely impacting the retail sector, but also our communities.” Clapham in south-west London hit headlines this month, when scores of teenagers looted high street outlets. Now an investigation by the Tonight programme has examined the devastating effect of prolific shoplifting on small businesses and how they are fighting back.
Sigga Redfern* launched a boutique in east London’s trendy Shoreditch eight years ago. Describing the shoplifting, she says: “It’s a massive problem. They just come, run in, grab everything they can and then run out again. They take the hangers, they take the alarms, they take all of it.”
Theft costs Sigga, who cannot afford security guards, up to £1,000 a week. And she is forced to confront the shoplifters herself. Employee Ruth Evans*, 25, adds: “It’s quite scary, to be honest.” Ruth recalled a raid by four men in balaclavas, saying they took a whole shelf each. Sigga says some of her staff have been too scared to work there, adding: “They simply don’t feel safe.”
She reports the raids, but says she is just given a crime number. The Metropolitan Police told Tonight shoplifting arrests increased by 50% last year and the number of cases they solved nearly doubled from 2024. A spokesman said: “Tackling retail crime remains a priority”
Dr Taylor, who is attached to City St George’s, University of London, says the reclassification in 2014 of stealing items worth less than £200 to “low-value shoplifting” by the Home Office attracted thieves to shoplifting. She adds: “Many offenders would say to me, ‘I’ve got a licence to steal, so long as I don’t surpass that £200’.”
Cullan Mais from Cardiff was a prolific shoplifter for years, stealing vast amounts to fund his drug addiction. He says: “I was flat out shoplifting every single day. The only days I wasn’t shoplifting was if I was caught and was in prison. I’ve stolen in the millions. I used to think, ‘I’m just hitting the big corporate businesses and so be it’.”
Stealing to order, he would sell the items on. He has been arrested 30 times and handed 10 jail sentences. Cullan finally stopped five-and-a-half years ago, after quitting drugs, and now helps businesses to tackle shoplifting. He introduced Tonight reporter Paul Brand to a woman who began shoplifting at 12 and has served time for it.
She steals items such as perfume, meat and alcohol to order, saying: “I’ll travel, so I don’t hit the same place all the time. I go from area to area, so as not to get noticed. I don’t steal from a corner shop. They’re family owned businesses. I do feel remorse, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to survive.”
A national police unit was launched two years ago to help coordinate investigations into organised shoplifting. But a survey by the British Retail Consortium suggests only 15% of retail crimes are currently reported. Jim Bligh, of the BRC, explains: “That number is so low because shopkeepers very often have low faith in the police.”
In Truro, Cornwall, gift store owner Martin Ellis* invested in CCTV because of persistent thefts and dissatisfaction with the police response. He says he and the team started making “citizen’s arrests”, detaining shoplifters until police came. Martin says: “We’d explain to them that we had seen them taking something. If it came to it, we would hold on to them.”
The law around citizens’ arrests is detailed and complex. Detaining suspected thieves can be allowed, but it depends on the circumstances. But Martin says they have used them more than 50 times, making his business less of a target for shoplifters. He says: “We didn’t enjoy it. But we kept doing it and it worked.”
Devon and Cornwall police told Tonight it does not support retail staff carrying out citizens’ arrests, as it can be “dangerous for staff, customers and the wider public”. A spokesman said the force is now taking a more proactive approach to thefts. Martin said he is also supported now by a team of council and business-funded shop rangers, who patrol the city centre, gathering evidence to help tackle crime.
Truro ranger Will Garside says: “We’ve got some pretty decent results – prison sentences, court orders.” Retailers are also using facial recognition in many stores, to log the identity of offenders, despite serious concerns from civil liberties groups. And many items – even chocolate – are now sold in security boxes, or on shelves protected by screens.
Dr Taylor says: “This basically makes it almost impossible to take the entire shelf.” At the Co-op, which has asked the government to tackle the issue of shoplifting and violence and abuse of its staff, the new security measures are having an impact.
Campaigns director Paul Gerrard says: “We were seeing almost 1,000 incidents every single day. We’ve seen crime come down by 20% in total and we’ve seen violence and abuse go down by 35% in Co-op stores. The police have stepped up and we’re having an impact.”
David Brooks, the boss of a Leeds branch regularly targeted, adds: “We’re talking about groups of three or four coming in with massive bags and clearing the shelves.” Now, many of the most shoplifted items are in security containers. And staff in the kiosk work behind a secure screen.
Minister for Crime and Policing, Sarah Jones, told Tonight shop theft is a “lawlessness that damages livelihoods”, claiming charges against offenders have risen by 21%. She said laws are being tightened and there were 3,000 more officers in neighbourhood roles. In Bridgend, South Wales, a convenience store plagued by shoplifters is trialling an AI system that flags potential shoplifting by analysing how customers are moving. James Roberts, from Armex Tech, says: “It detects suspicious gestures, i.e. hands going into pockets, or up jackets into bags.”
Cullan is advising the company on gestures to look out for. He says: “I’ve stolen in the thousands from this shop. With this system, you’re going to get caught.” Shopkeeper Simon Jehu adds: “It’s the instantaneous effect of it. The alert, it’s there. We’re aware of it in the moment, while the person is still in the shop, and we’re a much harder target because of that.”
*Shoplifting: Are We Paying The Price? is on ITV1 tomorrow night (Thursday) at 7.30pm.
*Surnames have been changed
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