Shoplifting fell by a third in pandemic year, ONS report shows

Shoplifting incidents fell by 36 per cent last year as theft offences went down amid the pandemic restrictions, official data has showed.

According to the annual report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), police recorded theft offences decreased by 32 per cent in the year ending March 2021 compared with the previous year to 1.3 million offences. This was driven by decreases in offences such as theft from the person (56%), shoplifting (36%), burglary (30%) and vehicle offences (28%).

Police recorded robbery offences have also seen a similar trend, falling by 34 per cent to 59,615 offences. This contrasts with the upwards trend seen since 2014/15.

The ONS said these falls were mainly driven by national lockdown restrictions, with non-essential shops and the night-time economy being closed and people spending more time in their homes.

“The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on patterns of crime. There were large decreases in theft offences, such as domestic burglary and theft from the person, as more people stayed at home and limited their social contact,” commented Billy Gazard from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice.

“The number of people who became victims of violent crime also fell, driven by decreases in violence where the offender was a stranger. This likely reflects a decrease in violence taking place in public spaces during national lockdown restrictions.”

As per the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW), there were an estimated three million incidents of theft for the year ending March 2021, a 20 per cent decrease compared with the year ending March 2019.

However, the fall across a range of individual crime types, particularly theft offences, were offset by rises in fraud and computer misuse offences, resulting in no change in overall levels of crime. The TCSEW indicated a 36 per cent increase in fraud and computer misuse offences compared with the year ending March 2019.

The largest decreases in recorded crime were seen during the three-month period that coincided with the first national lockdown, with a 19 per cent decrease in April to June 2020 compared with April to June 2019.

At the same time, industry surveys have shown that crime and abuse against retailers has increased last year. The ACS 2021 Crime Report reveals that 89 per cent of colleagues working in local shops have experienced some form of abuse, with over 1.2 million incidents recorded over the last year.

The most recent survey by the British Retail Consortium has also revealed a sharp rise in the number of attacks suffered by retailers, with the number of incidents of violence and abuse now reaching 455 a day.