Professional shoplifters selling stolen goods to stores, say trade bodies

More shops across the UK are reporting seeing their items being sold locally or on Facebook and WhatsApp groups after they are stolen by professional shoplifters, leading retailers' associations have said, adding that such shoplifters usually "steal to order for criminal gangs".

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said its members were reporting “high volume” and “very brazen and direct” incidents of shoplifting, with meat, cheese and alcohol items typically targeted. Businesses report seeing their items for sale locally or on Facebook or WhatsApp groups after being stolen.

James Lowman, the ACS chief executive, said he was aware that other businesses, usually smaller shops, were also buying stolen goods. Lowman said thieves were stealing to order, speculating that buyers may be turning a blind eye because they could not be sure if items were stolen.

He added, “What we are seeing is a higher volume of theft from the same people who are professional shop thieves, often doing it to feed addiction problems. And how do they do that? Well, they resell the products. And so we think there probably is a stronger market for those resold products.

“And that is something that we have been observing and talking about for the last couple of years”, The Guardian quoted Lowman as saying.

Andrew Goodacre, the chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), said he was aware of criminal gangs getting involved in organising shoplifters, improving their ability to steal and dispose of the goods. He also described hearing more cases in the past year of other stores buying the goods once they had been stolen.

Goodacre said, “I think often it used to be, and it still is, items like meat and cheese. But now our membership consists of pet shops, clothing shops, hardware stores, cookware stores, gift shops, independent department stores, clothing shops.

“And I think 80 per cent of them report stuff being stolen now which they wouldn’t have done two or three years ago. People are stealing pet food, pet accessories, cleaning materials, kitchen utensils, kettles, all sorts of things, depending on what’s been ordered. But also because putting a cheap kettle on Facebook Marketplace is likely to get a sale very quickly.”

The ACS said 5.6 million incidents of shop theft were reported by its members over the past year, with half of the shoplifters being repeat offenders. In the last year, convenience stores spent £339m on crime prevention, such as CCTV, alarms and tagging, the ACS said.