UK food shops report ‘massive’ rise in pensioner shoplifting

Food retailers person seen a “massive” summation successful pensioner shoplifters implicit the past year, according to a starring store information firm, amid the rising outgo of living.

John Nussbaum, manager of work for retail astatine Kingdom Services Group, has said his unit were seeing a “different benignant of shoplifter now” arsenic the outgo of surviving “pushes radical to thing they’ve ne'er done before”.

Kingdom, which provides services for hundreds of stores crossed the country, including supermarkets, convenience stores and buying malls, has received 20 to 30 reports of shoplifting a week from crossed the UK involving “people who conscionable can’t spend to bargain food”, Nussbaum said.

He told PA Media: “We’ve seen a monolithic summation successful pensioners shoplifting, putting a jar of java successful their container and 1 successful the trolley, that benignant of thing.”

He estimated that 5% of each those caught shoplifting by Kingdom unit connected a play ground were aged implicit 50.

“For america implicit the past 12 months, we’ve got this antithetic level of transgression now. We’re present experiencing thing antithetic – pensioners, radical who don’t usually shoplift,” Nussbaum said, adding: “We’ve had instances of mothers caught shoplifting erstwhile they’re with their kids.

He added: “Retailers don’t thin to impact the constabulary erstwhile they’re dealing with pensioners.

“It’s not bully publicity for a supermarket if it got retired that a pensioner had been handed implicit to the constabulary for shoplifting.”

Nussbaum’s comments came aft it emerged past period that the fig of shoplifting offences recorded by constabulary successful England and Wales has risen to the highest level connected record, according to authoritative figures, surpassing half-a-million offences for the archetypal clip successful 2024.

A full of 516,971 shoplifting offences were recorded past year, a 20% summation connected the 429,873 successful 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Retailers accidental the authoritative figures “severely underestimate” the standard of the problem, which would magnitude to lone 2 incidents for each store a year.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) commercialized assemblage has pointed to a emergence successful shoplifting by organised gangs stealing to order.

Graham Wynn, adjunct manager of concern and regularisation astatine the BRC, said: “Retail theft is simply a large contented for retailers, costing implicit £2.2bn a twelvemonth and acting arsenic a large trigger for unit and maltreatment against staff.

“While the causes are manifold, the emergence successful organised transgression is simply a important concern, with gangs hitting stores 1 aft another. Sadly, specified theft is not a victimless crime; it pushes up the outgo for honorable shoppers and damages the lawsuit experience.”

Retailers assertion that shops person been seen arsenic a brushed people since a 2014 instrumentality change successful England and Wales nether which those stealing goods worthy little than £200 are usually spared immoderate situation term.

Big retailers have besides been accused of contributing to the emergence successful transgression by reducing unit numbers and utilizing much self-service checkouts successful stores to support costs down.

However, retailers accidental they person spent millions of pounds connected improving information successful caller years, including installing facial designation and AI-aided cameras.

The authorities has acceptable retired authorities to assistance tackle shoplifting, including removing the £200 threshold for “low-level” theft. The transgression and policing bill, which is moving its mode done parliament, volition besides introduce a stand-alone offence of assaulting a retail worker. The authorities has promised funds to tackle organised gangs progressive successful store theft.

Nussbaum said unit were seeing “terrible unit now, each day” from organised gangs, with 1 worker punched successful the look conscionable this week and those moving astatine a buying centre northbound of London wearing stab-proof vests.

He said: “It’s not antithetic to travel crossed guns connected site.”

He supported facial-recognition exertion being trialled by supermarket concatenation Asda astatine 5 of its Greater Manchester stores, involving customers’ faces, picked up connected CCTV, being scanned and compared against individuals connected an interior watchlist.