Eighty-eight retailers, including Co-op, Aldi and Morrisons, have signed a letter to home secretary Suella Braverman calling for tougher sentences for shoplifters.

There are ‘unacceptable levels of violence and abuse [against staff] amid a rise in theft, much of it organised crime’, the letter warned.

The retail industry also demanded that the government create a standalone offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker, with tougher sentences for offenders. They also asked that police forces across the UK respond in greater numbers to incidents.

The news comes as Nisa also calls for greater protection of independent retailers due to surging retail crime.

Ben Selvaratnam, owner of Freshfields Market in Croydon, said his store is targeted by three to 10 shoplifting incidents and attempts a day, costing him hundreds of pounds a week.

He said: “We are a small, family run business and we can’t afford to hire separate security. We don’t make enough money to do that. We are in a very competitive high street town centre.

Retailers central to government crime crackdown plans

Earlier this year, a report by the Co-op Group revealed that more than 175,000 shoplifting incidents were recorded in the first six months of the year, amounting to nearly 1,000 incidents each day.

Victoria Lockie, Nisa’s head of retail, said it is a particularly tough time for independent retailers, many of whom can’t afford professional security.

“These horrific incidents have a long-lasting impact on businesses and a negative impact for the community overall,” Lockie said.

“The recent Co-op led report on retail crime highlighted some significant challenges, with the appropriate authorities failing to respond in over 70% of serious retail crimes reported. If we are going to tackle this issue seriously, we need that number to be dramatically reduced so independent retailers can feel safe simply doing their job.”

Selvaratnam said that the store has also reduced its opening hours, closing at 9pm instead of 11pm, after they noticed a spike in incidents late at night. 

He added: “It’s just very tough for us just to survive so this does have a massive impact. We now watch the CCTV at all times. We’re trying to manage a situation where we’re almost getting swamped.

“We have noticed more people that you wouldn’t have expected to shoplift before; good people who have maybe fallen on hard times.”

Some direct the cause of shoplifting to being the cost-of-living crisis, as everyday items have begun to hike in price.

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