There has been a 250% boost in prison sentences relating to shoplifting and a 200% rise in police management of offenders, through shoplifting action plan Pegasus.

Pegasus was launched in October 2023, seeing thirteen retailers, including Co-op and Tesco, team up with a specialist unit within the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC).  The aim of the scheme is to assess shoplifting from an organised crime perspective.

The figures of project Pegasus were revealed at an inquiry on tackling shoplifting on 3 September, held by the Justice and Home Affairs Committee at the House of Lords.

The inquiry saw evidence given by Co-op, the ACS, the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP) and the Safer Business Network, and professor Emmeline Taylor of City University.

Paul Gerrard, public affairs and board secretariat director at The Co-op Group, said Pegasus has seen significant success since January.

“Over the last 12 to 18 months, police willingness to engage in these partnerships has shifted significantly. Over the first seven months of this year, we are looking at a 200% increase in the number of offenders that the police have managed, and a 250% increase in prison sentences.

“We are seeing partnerships work because the police are more interested. Until October last year, when we had an individual in our custody, the police did not turn up to complete that arrest in 80% of occasions, which is horrific. The police are now turning up 65% of the time, improving from a 20% turnout.”

Taylor, who sits on the steering committee for Pegasus, said: “Recent figures show that Pegasus has identified more than 150 individuals who are linked to organised retail crime, and facilitated more than 23 arrests of what [NPCC] define as high harm offenders. It has also revealed that there are networks organised criminal gangs that are deliberately targeting the retail sector across the UK. Some of these individuals are from outside of the UK, and they are targeting the retail sector here because it’s perceived as relatively soft and lucrative.”

Gerrard added the importance of making assault of a shop worker a standalone offence in England and Wales.

He continued: “Scotland has seen the assault of a shop worker be a standalone offence since 2022, which has seen 60% of the country’s reported incidents of violence result in arrest. In England and Wales, without this as a standalone offence, the same is true for less than 10%. The response rate in Scotland to crimes of violence against shop workers are six times what the response rate is here.”

Calls for crime reduction funding

Business crime reduction partnerships were also spotlighted for their role in identifying offenders at an earlier stage, but for convenience stores to see more benefit from these, more funding is needed, said Sophie Jordan, manager of NABCP.  

“Business crime reduction partnerships sees member businesses encouraged to report everything that happens in their premises or nearby their premises, whether that’s thefts or violence or abuse,  – whatever the situation might be that’s affecting your business. We then analyse this information and build up a whole picture because we’ve got community buy in. We’re enabling offenders to be identified at a much earlier stage and giving the police actual workable crime reports.”

James Lowman, chief executive of ACS, pointed out that while many convenience stores will be involved in the partnerships, “some, by virtue of their location, may be less likely to be involved”.

“Our heartland is probably outside of main centers – such as in housing estates and villages – and those sorts of areas that may not be big enough to have their own partnership. They can feel quite isolated because they don’t have that network of other businesses directly around them. So, that can be a barrier for involvement.”

Jordan added that the smaller towns “need more involvement” and called for “sustainability in the funding which will then help to raise consistency so we can all operate the same partnerships”.

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