Shopping -in -life violations have risen by 23 percent to more than 490,000 a year to reach the highest level since the records started, new official figures revealed today.
The shocking data is further proof of the worsening theft epidemic of Great -Britain, which warned an industry organ today, was 'out of hand'.
A total of 492,914 offenses were registered by the police in the year until September, the Office of National Statistics (us) – the highest Figure since the current police recording practices started for the year ending on March 2003.
Other types of police registered crimes that increasing were theft and knife crimes (both with four percent each), while the number of murders fell with the same amount.
The crime investigation of England and Wales (CSEW) is based on interviews with 35,000 people and considered by statistics as the more accurate image of the crime levels.
This turned out that there were 9.5 million incidents of Headline crime last year. This was an increase of 12 percent compared to the previous year, mainly driven by an increase of 19 percent in fraud.
The CSEW has found that the crime has generally decreased in recent decades, with the exception of some violations – such as sexual violence.
Police data showing that shoplifting is on a record high are seized by retail bosses as further evidence that urgent action is needed to tackle lawlessness.
Shown: Images shows a woman who steals a beauty item and then fled the store after he is confronted with a staff member in a recently presumably case of shoplifting
It follows warnings from Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), that retail crime 'gets out of hand'.
The BRC produced its own research showing that violent And offensive incidents against store staff reached more than 2,000 a day during the financial year 2023/2024.
And retailers have 'little confidence' that the police take shoplifting seriously as the costs for companies rose from £ 1.8 billion to £ 2.2 billion.
There were more than 55,000 incidents of theft per day, equal to more than 20 million in total.
The alarming figures show that the problem is getting worse, with cases of attacks and shoplifting of last year's record to be a fresh high since the surveys started in 2001.
This is despite the fact that companies pay a record of £ 1.8 billion on prevention tactics such as CCTV, more guards and cameras worn through the body.
About 61 percent of retailers say that the police response to calls for help 'poor' or 'very poor' has been.
Retailers report unprecedented levels of violence against their staff, with the number of incidents with a weapon that more than doubles to 70 a day.
A man in Oxted squats down and hastily pushes four candles in an open Sainsbury's bag before leaving the store in a recently presumably case of shoplifting
Alarming cases are, among other things, staff who 'spits, racially abused and threatened with machetes' and the perpetrators 'become more brutal and more aggressive', according to Mrs. Dickinson.
She added: 'With little confidence in the police -presence, it is no wonder that criminals feel that they have a permit to steal, threaten, mistreat and abuse.
'Retailers spend more than ever before, but they cannot prevent crime alone. We need the police to respond and handle it in the correct way in every reported incident. '
As a result, the industrial group repeated calls for attacks on store staff to make a specific crime in England and Wales, such as in Scotland.
Labor has promised to do this in the upcoming law on crime and police, which the industry hopes will be introduced in the coming weeks.
It marks a victory for the post, which led first when exposing abuse against store employees and shoplifting and called for authorities to take the issue more seriously.
The campaign started after Tesco -Baas Ken Murphy revealed that every front line worker had to be offered a camera to Body because of an increase in attacks.
Ministers have also sworn to remove a threshold of £ 200, which means that many shoplifting affairs are deported by the police.
The current laws mean that theft is 'decriminalized', according to Lord Stuart Rose, the former boss of Asda and Marks & Spencer.
But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insisted that the country could not tolerate a situation in which shoplifters can walk in, make a shoplifter and walk back and nobody can do anything about it 'last year.
The frequency of attacks means that many of the 3 million people who work in the retail trade are terrified of coming to work, according to Retail Trust.
“People contact our helpline in their thousands to report horrible incidents of abuse and violence and many say they are now about to,” said Chris Brook-Carter, the Chief Executive of the organization.
