According to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shoplifting offences in England and Wales in 2023 have risen to the highest level since records began in 2003.
According to the data there has been more than 430,000 recorded cases last year which had increased by 37% in the year ending 2023 when compared to 2022. This makes it the highest levels recorded since records started being kept in 2003.
James Cleverly responded by saying that although the police record it as a ‘sub threshold crime’ and it has a so called ‘corrosive effect’ on peoples confidence in the police. Its not surprising that he appeared to have zero sympathy for those effectively forced to shoplift due to various circumstances.
Julian Heyes, criminal defence lawyer and partner at Berris Law LLP went on to say ” The release of the recent shoplifting figures simply demonstrate that the years of austerity and cuts in policing have meant that the investigation of these so called minor offences have long since been neglected and ignored”
“The police cannot be blamed for this as they, much like the rest of the criminal justice system are on their knees. The cost to the high street is immeasurable and causing shops and businesses to close or restrict access to customers, not to mention the horrendous risks that members of staff have to take when challenging shoplifters”
The truth is that shop lifting is rising for various reasons including and not excluding others: The increasing cost of living, high energy bills, low wages, less than adequate social security payments, increases in mortgage repayments, social security payments being too low and badly paid employment.
Whilst many people with addictions shoplift to fund their habits there’s very little support given to them to conquer their addictions thus the circle of offending continues.
Let’s be clear, very few people actually want to shoplift its a situation they find themselves in through desperation and is usually the last option that they can take after exhausting other avenues, they’re desperate and see this as a last resort.
We all appreciate and acknowledge that there are foodbanks that help people but not everyone can access them or can wait until the next time they’re open. People are driven by hunger and distress and we live in desperate times which is entirely the governments creation.
The UK has a government hell bent on lining their own pockets and their business and personal friends with money that has been taken from the public purse. There’s been a sharp decline in the physical and mental wellbeing of the working class and mortality levels are rising. The constant stripping of funding to local councils has also paid a huge part in this and town centres aren’t being cared for like they should be because theres no longer the financial means to do so. This has a direct impact upon the high street.
The solution to this is quite simple and to be honest basic economics. For a society to succeed and thrive there has to be financial investment into the public, the more money they have to spend undoubtably benefits their general health it also helps to transform the areas that they live.
It’s easy to blame a shoplifter for shoplifting, and I don’t condone violence towards retail staff. The blame lies totally at the governments feet. Society as we knew it has been broken by the current government, the amount of desperate and hungry people are at their highest in modern times, desperate people are forced to take measures that they would previously have never dreamt of doing.
Hurl your anger at the government and not Joe Public.
The poor side of life 
this was just brought home to me! I just went into the corner shop to buy milk (and I live in a small Welsh village)
there was a sign up, milk, bacon, cheese, coffee, please ask at counter! Puzzled I asked for my pint semi skimmed and she said fine, we have plenty just locked away because of shoplifting! To think anyone doesn’t have 90p for milk is beyond heart breaking
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That’s an awful sign of the times isn’t it people can’t afford to live anymore 😭
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oh yes! A sign of the times when basic staples are locked up, but I saw several types of alcohol on general display. This surely shows people aren’t targeting it, but rather the basic necessities. I wonder if the political parties even KNOW there’s ppl unable to afford 90p for milk? They certainly don’t CARE
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They certainly know extreme poverty exists Kat, they are responsible for it along with their corporate cronies. Poverty is violence, especially from this bunch of Tory thugs, inflicted on the poor and serves several purposes. It keeps profits high, made by the hands of the poor, it keeps the poor down and in servitude and it suppresses wages across the entire spectrum of working class people, who they openly despise, demonise and sneer at.
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Oh yes Keith they certainly do and they continue to laugh at us whilst they’re inflicting even more poverty and suffering to us all x.
Excellently said x
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Hi Charlotte. Given that you live in one of the test beds of their conscious cruelty and where they refined it into out and out brutality, you are a personal witness to their imposed thuggery and have monitored it for, what is it now, thirteen years? Just for the record, you are a hero and have my undying respect and love my friend. x
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People shoplift because they don’t have enough money to buy the goods they need. The price of electric and gas DD’s are increasing even though the unit prices are decreasing but SC’s are increasing. Benefits are not increasing in line with the true inflation rate because the government always lowers the inflation rate in the month they use to work out benefit increases and pensions, only for the inflation rate to increase the following month in most years.
Some people on benefits don’t know they can get a 25% reduction on their CT or that if they live alone they could be better off with a water meter as in many areas the SC’s for water make up 25% or more of the yearly bill but 1 cubic meter of water costs under £3. They are being billed as if 6 or 7 people are in the property in some regions but a water meter could cut their water bill by up to 65%.
Supermarkets increased food prices almost immediately when Russia invaded the Ukraine because energy suppliers immediately increased the cost of gas that they bought even though they had months of gas supply left and they were very very slow to decrease the prices once they knew there would be very little to no disruption in the supply.
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The greatest increase in poverty in the UK in 30 years is entirely down to the government. I am sure that they masturbate on their delight in cruelty. Their sanction regime deprives people of the means of survival which no court in Britain is allowed to do. They have created a culture of scavenging at a level that cannot be called shoplifting in a land overflowing in abundance. The crimes are all one sided. the Tories are the crime and it is they who should be imprisoned as they continue to asset strip Britain to enrich themselves and their evil crony partners.
To borrow from Aneurin Bevan: No amount of cajolery can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred of the Tory party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
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People are so desperate they resort to shoplifting, this is another sign like the need and existence of foodbanks that the government is failing to support people and families who can’t afford to even feed themselves. It is disgraceful in a wealthy country.
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It certainly is
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