The ACS’ 2024 Crime Report has revealed shop theft reached records heights in the year to 12 January 2024.

The report showed that 5.6m incidents of shop theft were recorded in the last 12 months, up from 1.1m incidents recorded in the 2023 report, representing a 409% increase.

Retailers reported more than 600 incidents of theft an hour last year.

The report also highlights a huge increase in violent incidents committed against retailers and their colleagues. Over the last year, there have been around 76,000 incidents of violence in shops compared to 41,000 in the 2023 Crime Report.

ACS’ chief executive James Lowman said: “Retailers are facing an onslaught of crime committed against their businesses on a daily basis, with some losing tens of thousands of pounds per year to theft alone. This extended crimewave cannot be allowed to continue. Thieves are known to the community and to the police but they simply do not care, and continue on regardless, filling baskets and trolleys and walking out without fear of reproach.

“There have been positive steps forward made in recent months with the publication of the Retail Crime Action Plan and the launching of Operation Pegasus to try and better identify prolific offenders and bring them to justice, but the figures in our report demonstrate that more needs to be done urgently. Nobody should have to come to work and face what retailers and their colleagues have faced over the last year.”

Taken together, the cost of crime and the cost of investing in fighting crime results in a 10p ‘crime tax’ on every transaction that takes place in every store across the UK, up from 6p in the 2023 Crime Report.

The report also found that retailers encountering thieves tops the list of triggers for abuse, followed by enforcing age-restricted sales, while 87% of independent retailers have faced verbal abuse in the past year.

Two-thirds of retailers believe the increase in theft is due to the cost-of-living crisis, while more than three-quarters (76%) believe organised crime has become more prevalent in the last year.

The ACS is calling on the government to:

• Deliver justice for shopworkers and effective sanctions for offenders,
• Focus additional police resources on neighbourhood policing to keep communities safe
• Support further investment in technology to deter and detect criminals

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