‘I caught a brazen shoplifter stealing beer – he didn’t even get punished’ | EUROtoday

A shopkeeper who dragged a taunting thief again to his retailer mentioned the person’s punishment despatched out the incorrect sign to different potential criminals.

The shoplifter casually opened a can of Foster’s beer as he walked out of Core Convenience in Durham with out paying for a £10 crate of the lager.

But he was stopped by retailer proprietor Andrew Board, who grabbed him and introduced him again to the doorway.

Despite Mr Board’s courageous actions, officers at Durham Constabulary didn’t take the matter to court docket after finding the suspect, who admitted to the offence.

Instead he was handled via a neighborhood decision, typically used for minor offences or incidents of delinquent behaviour, and doesn’t lead to a felony conviction.

Under the answer, the offender paid again the cash for the beer and was then banned from the getting into the store.

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“This is a wrong signal and fuels the problem,” mentioned Mr Board. “A person then knows that they can steal as they wish, and if they get caught, they would just have to pay for the goods then.

“On this case, there was essentially no punishment for attempting to steal goods. He could have got away without paying, but as I caught him, he was just made to pay for it. No deterrent in the legal sense.”

Mr Board mentioned he handled a number of shoplifting incidents at his retailer each week.

He has needed to make a number of citizen arrests and improve the CCTV system inside the store because of thefts.

Sought-after gadgets for criminals, akin to Lurpak butter, 20-can packs of Budweiser and huge bottles of Comfort softener, have needed to be faraway from cabinets.

Mr Board’s battle with shoplifters replicate a nationwide concern with police receiving a report variety of studies for store thefts final 12 months.

But most reported offences don’t result in punishment.

Home Office information analysed by The Independent confirmed simply 18 per cent of studies of shoplifting resulted in an individual being charged or summoned to court docket in 2023/24 in England and Wales.

In greater than half (56 per cent), police did not determine the suspect and the case was dropped.

Of these sentenced for shoplifting at court docket in England and Wales final 12 months, 27 per cent acquired a custodial sentence.

Mr Board mentioned that due to the time it took to get a case to court docket, the neighborhood decision given to the offender for the offence was “probably the best option to get the money back fast”.

But he added: “It shouldn’t be like that. We should get our money back quickly, and they should get punished.”

Last week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper introduced that further officers might be deployed on the streets of 500 cities in a summer time crackdown on shoplifting and delinquent behaviour.

She mentioned: “Residents and businesses have the right to feel safe in their towns. But the last government left a surge in shop theft, street crime and anti-social behaviour which has left too many town centres feeling abandoned.

“It’s time to turn this round, that’s why I have called on police forces and councils alike to work together to deliver a summer blitz on town centre crime to send a clear message to those people who bring misery to our towns that their crimes will no longer go unpunished.”

A Durham Constabulary spokeswoman mentioned: “We take this type of offending extremely seriously and work hard to tackle the issue across our force area.

“A large proportion of shoplifting offences are opportunistic and committed by people with drug or alcohol addictions. That’s why, as a force, we must look at the bigger picture and find out why individuals offend in the first place and seek to address the underlying reasons for their offending.”