Staff report ‘massive’ improve in pensioner shoplifters | EUROtoday

Shoplifting amongst pensioners has seen a major rise, attributed to the rising value of dwelling, in response to retail safety agency Kingdom Security.

John Nussbaum, director of service for retail on the agency, famous a shift within the demographic of shoplifters, stating that cost-of-living pressures are “pushing people to something they’ve never done before.”

Kingdom Security, which offers companies to a whole bunch of UK shops together with supermarkets, comfort shops, and purchasing malls, reviews a weekly inflow of 20 to 30 shoplifting incidents nationwide. These incidents, in response to Nussbaum, contain “people who just can’t afford to buy food.”

This suggests a regarding development of people resorting to theft out of financial necessity.

He mentioned: “We’ve seen a massive increase in pensioners shoplifting, putting a jar of coffee in their bag and one in the trolley, that sort of thing.

“For us over the last 12 months, we’ve got this different level of crime now. We’re now experiencing something different – pensioners, people who don’t normally shoplift.

“We’ve had instances of mothers caught shoplifting when they’re with their kids.

“We’re used to seeing the organised gangs, that’s the norm, but the types of people being caught now has changed.”

He estimated that 5% of all these caught shoplifting by Kingdom workers on a weekly foundation had been aged over 50.

“We’ve not seen this before, and I’ve been in security for 30 years. Ten years ago, five years ago, you wouldn’t have seen this kind of theft. We put it down to the cost of living. People can’t afford to spend £10, £20 on food. It’s desperation.”

He added: “Retailers don’t tend to involve the police when they’re dealing with pensioners. Stores tend to want to handle it on their own.

“It’s not good publicity for a supermarket if it got out that a pensioner had been handed over to the police for shoplifting.”

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Mr Nussbaum’s feedback observe figures displaying that the variety of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales in a yr has handed half 1,000,000 for the primary time.

A complete of 516,971 offences had been logged by forces in 2024, up 20% from 429,873 in 2023.

The determine is the best since present police recording practices started within the yr to March 2003, in response to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Shoplifting offences have been working at file ranges for the previous two years and have seen a “sharp rise” for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic, the ONS mentioned.

Additionally, Mr Nussbaum mentioned, workers had been seeing “terrible violence now, every day” from organised gangs, with one worker punched within the face simply this week and people working at a purchasing centre north of London carrying stabproof vests.

He mentioned: “It’s not unusual to come across guns on site.

“We carried out a big operation with police to clean up the city centre, which included the shopping centre. We found knives, drugs – there’s a lot of drug-dealing going on.

“We have a quick response unit for one of our bigger retailers which can get to places very quickly and is highly trained for a variety of incidents and safeguarding.

“But you have to remember that retail staff also have to deal with this every day.”

He mentioned: “There’s no fear any more.

“If someone gets arrested they might get a fine or spend a night in jail. There’s no deterrent any more. There’s nothing to stop these people.

“We’ve had prolific shoplifters who get arrested and they’re back two days later. We have this quite a lot.”

Mr Nussbaum mentioned he supported facial recognition expertise being trialled by Asda at 5 of its Greater Manchester shops, involving prospects’ faces, picked up on CCTV, being scanned and in contrast towards people on an inside watchlist.

The watchlist, compiled by Asda, is made up of people workers suspect have been concerned in “theft, violence and/or fraud in Asda stores”, though they will not be convicted of any crime.

Home Bargains, Southern Co-op, Budgens, Costcutter and a number of other unbiased comfort shops use related expertise.

Mr Nussbaum mentioned: “Facial recognition is brilliant and more retailers should do it. Anything that aids identifying shoplifters, organised gangs, people who could be violent is a good thing.”