We all pay the price of shoplifting

Retail Shoplifting
Retail Shoplifting

Shoplifting is far from being a victimless crime. More than 440,000 offences were recorded in the year to March 2024, a 20 year high. Now the clothing retailer Primark has revealed that this appalling crime wave is costing it more than its considerable business rates bill. It has had to resort to new measures – including body cameras for staff – to attempt to stop the thieves. Smaller shops may not have the same option.

When are the authorities going to start taking this scourge seriously? The economic costs are huge, and may dissuade retailers from opening new premises in particularly crime-affected areas. Customers are inevitably paying higher prices as shops attempt to recoup some of their lost revenues. But the sight of criminals openly stealing, evidently under the belief that nobody will stop or punish them, is also damaging the public’s faith in the forces of law and order.

Before assuming office, Sir Keir Starmer pledged that he would crack down on shoplifting and violence against shop workers. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has since called it an “epidemic” and wants to introduce new laws that will require police to investigate even when the goods stolen are worth less than £200.

But the situation has become urgent. The authorities need to take a much harsher line against thieves, including longer jail terms. How that squares with Labour’s plan to release from prison thousands of criminals early has not been made clear.