Shoplifting surges by ’16 per cent in three months’

Shoplifting cases have surged 16 per cent in the past three months as shoppers steal essential products amid soaring living costs, new data reveals, adding that Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been the hardest hit by thieves over recent months. 

According to Freedom of Information requests by The Telegraph, Big 4 grocer’s Sainsbury’s and Tesco accounted for two-fifths (40%) of overall cases. More than 20 police forces showed officers were called to 10,019 cases in October this year, compared to 8,602 cases in July. 

Moreover, retail artificial intelligence specialist Scanwatch revealed that self-checkouts have been targeted by first-time shoplifters and were used in nine out of ten cases. 

Shoplifting cost retailers £663m in 2020 to 2021, British Retail Consortium director of business and regulation Tom Ironside told The Telegraph. 

Consumer champion Martyn James said that the scale of the problem could be “much higher” as local supermarkets are “reluctant to report some instances of shoplifting”. 

“There is little doubt though that the cost-of-living crisis is driving people to do things they would never have previously considered,” he told the newspaper. 

“This increase in theft is not being driven by people seeking a ‘thrill’ or a rise in kleptomaniacs. It’s people struggling to make ends meet – and as bills increase over winter, this may only just be the beginning.” 

The figures comes a month after Bloomberg reported that incidents of shoplifting in the UK increased 18% in the 12 months through June as the highest inflation in more than four decades has pushed up prices on items ranging from bread to pasta, making it more difficult for consumers to afford basics.   

Stores that used to attach anti-theft devices to pricey items like alcohol have shifted to also protect unlikely products — butter, cheese, washing detergent and protein bars, some of them retailing at just £2 ($2.37). 

Tesco  and Sainsbury are among more than 100 retailers that called on British police in August to focus on retail crime as the cost of living weighs heavily on shoppers. Tesco ramped up security measures earlier this year including in-store personnel, Chairman John Allan told Times Radio. 

“I don’t sympathize with people who shoplift, but I can understand desperate people taking desperate measures,” Allan said at the time.