Police Record 32% Increase in Shoplifting.

No surprise, there's no deterrent, they do it because it's easy and the police don't care, anything under £200 is not prosecuted, my mother in law works in a Sainsbury's mini market and she says it's rithe in their store, when they phone police they never come

I'm sure a huge amount of shoplifting goes unreported so its anyone's guess what the real increase is. I don't consider myself rightwing but I guess I am on crime as I just feel punishments need to be far more severe. I'd give people 3 months hard labour in the fields with a ball and chain plus charge them all costs for the court etc. Ultimately you need to make the punishment so unpleasant people won't risk it.

I also think shops have the right to run membership schemes. Wholesalers like Costco have very low theft rates because they control who shops there. I'd be happy to go into a supermarket which is 5% cheaper all around if I had to a have a membership card that perhaps cost me £3 to join. Of course I wouldn't get that membership card if I had a criminal record or was under a certain age etc. There would be checks done.

Security guards and cardboard policemen obviously not a deterrent then.People do things because they can and not necessarily because they need to I guess.No substitute for a good conscience though.

It speaks to the level of desperation in this country. I think police rarely get involved now because they are understaffed (can't get the recruits, racist, sexist, so many are corrupt, they 'police' themselves etc.)... I think the solution is a complete overhaul of the systems that perpetuate crime and of policing (this will naturally never happen)

I remember seeing a news report where one Co-op manager and staff have been attacked trying to catch shoplifters and police don’t get involved with such small sums.

I saw a documentary about a shopping centre that all club in together and pay for private security guards - uniformed and under cover and all the shops said it definitely saved them money even taking into account their portion of whatever they are paying.

This doesn't surprise me at all, we see it happening quite often in our town, even saw a man stealing today in Poundland.

I also think these statistics are nonsense, probably more like a 1000%+ increase, I don't believe anything this government or police say

Shoplifting is a sad but inevitable reflection of the desperate situation in this country. Many shoplifters are brazen about it and know that the likelihood of being challenged is next to none. Let's face it who would challenge them when the justice system is also completely broken and the person trying to stop them would probably be sued and end up paying the shoplifter damages!

The two sad facts are that 'middle england' are the people bearing the direct cost of this and the situation isn't going to get any better because we are broken at the top (government).

Not surprised. Punishment isn't hard enough nor is the fact people can't afford to live. Society is in a mess to ge honest

I was in Iceland twice when a theft occured, I only heard one incident as was on the other side of an aisle and couldn't see but the other were a young couple trying to steal cider and he was putting it in his backpack. I know its not nice to say so but they looked and sounded incredibly stupid. Another instance was at Tesco Express at Cavalier Way in Yeovil. I didn't see the people who stole alcohol but saw one of the staff run to the front of the store to try to stop them leave and then come back without success he spoke of them being young men I think. He also spoke of them regularly stealing from the store. Two of the thefts were alcohol related but one certainly wasn't as the alcohol section was right next to me and they were on the other side of the aisle so had to be something else in Iceland. All 3 incidents happened within maybe 3 months of each other. Prior to that I've never seen a shoplifting incident in my life I think. We are becoming a much poorer country and poorer countries generally have nastier punishments because more of their population are in desperate circumstances.

Sadly we have a population happy to destroy their economy with a huge level of high value imports and foreign holidays and frankly incompetent politicians for every political party none of which have an economic recovery plan. I think we will hit rock bottom before we come to our senses and need a IMF bailout at some point which should mean the government is forced to follow sensible recovery policies as part of the loan.

Makes me angry when they are nicking alcohol etc and incredibly sad when they are trying to steal a sandwich.

Shoplifting can be all sorts of things. With the cost of living I am not surprised that numbers have gone up. Obviously I don’t agree with it and some of those numbers are just people stealing for no reason. It is not a shock.

People can't take matters into their own hands and the cops don't do anything about it so the criminals can do as they wish. Smh.

Given the cost of living, its hardly surprising.

People are struggling tough times means tough measures and anything under £200 police are not interested