Officers investigating a robbery at a convenience store in Nottingham have released images of the accused, asking for public to help them identify and trace the man.
According to Nottinghamshire Police, a man walked into a convenience store in St Ann's Well Road, St Ann’s, Nottingham, before stealing alcohol shortly after midday on April 14.
Minutes later, he returned and began filling up a bag with multiple bottles of alcohol.
Whilst doing this, a store worker intervened and tried to push the man out of the store. In doing so, the man shrugged her off before leaving the store without making payment for the items.
PC Madison Hayes, of Nottinghamshire Police, said, “This was an upsetting incident for the shop worker and we are determined to track down the person responsible.
“We believe the man in this image will be able to assist our investigation and I’d ask anyone who recognises him to come forward as soon as possible.”
This comes days after it was reported that shoplifting offences has reached the highest figure since current police recording practices began in March 2003.
According to Crime Survey for England and Wales published by Office for National Statistics data on Thursday (April 24), shoplifting rose by 20 per cent (to 516,971 offences), compared with the previous year (429,873 offences); this is the highest figure since current police recording practices began in March 2003.
Commenting on the record crime levels, Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said, “The increase in shop theft shown by these figures reflects what our members are seeing every day in their stores.
"The volume of theft is still massively under-reported though: our own member survey revealed 6.2million thefts recorded by convenience stores alone.
“It is encouraging that more theft is being reported, even if it is still only the tip of the iceberg.
"Unless theft is reported, we cannot identify the repeat offenders who are responsible for so much of this crime. The Crime and Policing Bill gives more powers to the police and courts to deal with these offenders, and the Retail Crime Action Plan makes clear that shop theft must be investigated.
"It’s time that these plans were implemented across the country to support retailers and their colleagues."
