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Theft on the rise
ONS data shows there has been an increase in shop theft offences reported to police and there are fears that the figure may continue to rise as the cost-of-living crisis bites.
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here were 274,999 incidents of shop theft in the year ending March 2022, a 21% increase from a year earlier, according to new ONS data for police recorded crime, sourced to the Home Office. The figures only account for the number of incidents that ended up being recorded by the police, so is likely to be just a fraction of the number of crimes committed. Figures from the 2022 ACS Crime Report show that there were almost a million incidents of theft committed against convenience stores over the past year, costing an average of more than £1,000 per store. More than half of those committing offences were identified as
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repeat offenders, and the top motivations for repeat offending were addiction and an organised group of criminals. ACS Chief Executive, James Lowman, said: “The overall increase in shop theft is likely to be partially due to many retailers being closed or partially closed during the period of Covid restrictions. Additionally, many convenience retailers were operating on reduced numbers of customers in store for safety reasons, which can make it more difficult for thieves to steal from stores. Shop theft continues to be a massive issue for convenience retailers and is mostly driven by organised groups stealing to sell on elsewhere and those who are suffering from a drug or
alcohol addiction. Retailers have told us that they do not see any evidence of the cost-of-living crisis driving ordinary people to steal from stores, it is still the same
“We urge all police and crime dealing with shop theft ... as there is a strong likelihood escalate to violence, rob groups looking to cash in at the expense of hard-working business owners. “We strongly urge all Police and Crime Commissioners to prioritise dealing with shop theft in their plans for local
