The ACS has worked with Sky News to produce an exclusive segment dedicated to retail crime, and how frequently it occurs in stores.

The report, shown on 20 November, showed that 77% of shopkeepers experienced retail crime in the last week, while 94% say shoplifting has got worse over the last year and 83% say they have no confidence in the police.

Vince Malone, of Tenby Stores & Post Office in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, featured in the piece with a shopworker from Wolverhampton and Thames Valley police and crime commissioner (PCC) Matthew Barber. Malone noted that AI technology has allowed him and his staff to “identify where the problems are and tackle the problems overtly”.

He continued: “This is something that really concerns me and our members. We lost £26,000 last year, and we made a really large investment in our AI technology to be able to give us a fighting chance to combat this. But what we need is consequences, and it’s something that is a real concern to many retailers up and down the country, as shown in your report.

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“It has worked on a number of levels, if someone comes into our shop and they are acting in a suspicious way, it automatically pings on our headsets that all our team are wearing and tells them that there is suspicious activity or stealing happening. It has allowed us to tackle problems a little bit more overtly so we can go forward and say ‘we have seen you’.”

The Fed ran a survey in October with results showing that 72% of members are suffering the impact of retail crime, 90% agreed tougher sentences should be given and 91% believed more police patrols should be on the streets.

Malone said: “There is always that risk of it going a little bit further and then leading to violence or abusive behaviour, and that’s something we are very keen to make sure we protect ourselves, protect our team and protect our customers from.”

Barber added that turning charges into convictions is “a big challenge” and “it is not just which turn into convictions but then what is the consequences of those convictions and what are the consequences for the criminals”.

He said: “But we see too many cases going to court, I have a list of cases where they go to court, plead guilty but are then bailed before sentencing so they are still out there committing more crime.”

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