The Times wrote:Shoplifting hits highest level in at least 20 years
Police-recorded robbery and knife crime are also on the rise in England and Wales
Shoplifting offences logged by the police have hit their highest level since comparable records began 21 years ago.
A total of 430,104 offences were recorded in England and Wales last year, up 37 per cent on the 315,040 in the previous 12 months.
It is the highest number since present recording practices began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which described the latest increase as “notable”.
The data, published on Thursday, came after big retailers raised concerns about the rising cost of theft. It also showed that “thefts from the person”, such as snatch-thefts or picking pockets, stood at 125,563 in 2023, up 18 per cent from 106,606 in 2022. It is the highest level since 2004, when 137,154 were recorded.
Robbery was also on the rise last year, with a total of 81,094 offences, a rise of 13 per cent on the previous year, although in the longer term this crime is significantly less prevalent, with the number of offences down 26 per cent since 2003, when current recording practices began.
Knife crime increased by 7 per cent, with 49,489 offences recorded by the police, although this number is 3 per cent lower than in 2015. The figures for crimes involving knives or sharp instruments do not include data from Greater Manchester or Devon & Cornwall police, due to data-recording issues.
However, fraud offences fell by 16 per cent, driven by a decline in bank and credit account fraud and a 34 per cent drop in “advance-fee fraud”, which is when fraudsters target victims to make upfront payments for goods, services or financial gains that do not materialise. Criminal damage decreased by 18 per cent, including a 25 per cent fall in criminal damage to vehicles.
Nick Stripe, head of crime statistics at the ONS, said: “In the past 12 months, police-recorded crime shows notable increases in robbery, theft from the person and shoplifting. The latter has risen by more than 100,000 offences, while the police have been dealing with the highest levels of theft-from-the-person offences recorded in two decades.”
In total, the ONS crime survey for England and Wales showed there were an estimated 8.4 million criminal offences in the year ending December 2023, roughly in line with the previous year, although the figures showed crime was falling in the longer term, with offences 25 per cent lower than in 2017.
Must be absolutely horrible working in retail these days. Went into a Londis the other day and they'd stuck up a security screen with hatch - like something right out of America. Just a grim shopping experience.