Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Retail sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
Shoplifting in the UK hit a record £2.2bn last year, alongside surging crime levels and rising violence and abuse against staff, industry data showed.
Theft reached an all-time high with more than 20mn incidents registered in the year to August 24, according to the British Retail Consortium, which represents more than 200 large companies in the UK.
Crime in stores was “spiralling out of control”, chief executive Helen Dickinson said, despite significant investment from high-street brands to prevent thieves from stealing goods and attacking shop assistants.
Violence and abuse during the period climbed to more than 2,000 a day, up from 1,300 the year before. This is more than three times what it was in 2020, when there were just 455 incidents a day.
Meanwhile, losses from customer theft reached £2.2bn, up from £1.8bn the previous year, adding further pressure to the mounting costs retailers already face.
“Every day this continues, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive,” Dickinson added.
Many of the incidents are linked to organised crime, with gangs systematically targeting stores across the country, often stealing tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of goods and moving around multiple stores, the BRC said.
John Lewis and Waitrose last year said “greed not need” was driving record levels of shoplifting as the retail group upped its security to combat it.
The group has been installing technology in larger supermarkets to automatically stop trolleys if items have not been paid for and installing more public display monitors that act like mirrors near the alcohol and meat aisles — sections attractive to thieves.
The amount spent on crime prevention was also at a record high, with retailers investing £1.8bn on measures such as CCTV, more security staff, antitheft devices and body-worn cameras, up from £1.2bn the previous year.
Paddy Lillis, general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said: “Crime has a very direct impact on the viability of stores, as retailers go to increasing lengths and expense to make them secure and safe.”
The Labour government has pledged to address the rise in retail crime through stronger measures to tackle shoplifting and antisocial behaviour, including removing the £200 threshold for so-called low-level theft. It said it would introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker in England and Wales.
In 2023, police and the previous government launched measures to tackle the rise in retail crime, known as the Retail Crime Action Plan.
