Shoplifting offences surge to an all-time high with 1,300 every day last year

Shoplifting has soared to another record high, with nearly 1,300 offences being recorded every day last year.

There was a total of 469,788 offences logged by police forces in England and Wales in the year to June 2024. That is a 29% leap from the 365,173 recorded in the 12 months previous.

The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Shoplifting levels had already reached a 20-year high earlier this year, with the latest figures showing them rising even higher.

Responding to today’s stats, retailers said the ‘epidemic’ cost the industry £1.8 billion last year, with thieves ‘becoming bolder, more aggressive and more frequently armed with weapons’.

The data comes in the wake of major retailers raising concerns about the increased cost of theft and as the Government vowed to tackle low-level shoplifting and make assaulting a shop worker a specific criminal offence.

Last month, the Co-Operative Group revealed the cost of crime in its stores surged by nearly a fifth to £40 million in the first half of the year alone.

Despite spending £18 million on measures to help protect staff in its food business, including rolling out body-worn cameras and fortified kiosks, it took a hit of £39.5 million from theft and fraud.

Matt Hood, managing director of Co-op Food, said: ‘As these new figures show, we are seeing far too many prolific offenders persistently steal large volumes of products, in UK shops every day, and, if they are stealing to fund addictions, the situation often becomes volatile and dangerous.

‘Crime is an occupation for some – it is not petty crime, and it is not victimless. 

‘At Co-op we have invested over £200 million on preventative measures in our shops and believe the collaborative approach between the retail industry, the police, and the Government, will start to instigate a change, sending out a clear message to all those who commit brazen and often violent acts of retail theft, that time is now up on their criminal ways.’

Graham Wynn, Assistant Director of Regulatory Affairs at the British Retail Consortium, said: ‘The figures published by the ONS reflect the scale of the issue which retailers face on a day-to-day basis.

‘Shoplifting remains at its highest level in 20 years and cost retailers £1.8 billion last year. The thieves committing these crimes are becoming bolder, more aggressive, and are more frequently armed with weapons.

‘The government must ensure that the standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker passes into law as soon as possible to protect all retail workers and to send a clear message that this behaviour will not be tolerated. This will also give police the data they need to allocate resources to tackle this epidemic we are currently facing.’

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said: ‘Too many town centres have been decimated by record levels of shoplifting, and communities have been left shaken by rising levels of knife crime, snatch theft and robbery. This cannot continue.

‘This Government will restore neighbourhood policing across the country, put thousands more dedicated officers out on our streets and scrap the £200 shoplifting threshold, bringing an end to the effective impunity for thieves who steal low value goods.’

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