'Soft touch' Britain becoming crime capital as foreign gangs 'fly in and out' to shoplift

Shoplifting cost British retailers nearly £1 billion last year, with the majority of the crime wave being led by foreign gangs.

Detective Chief Supt. Jim Taylor told Channel 4 News that the shoplifting crisis sweeping the UK is a completely different type of shoplifting than the police and public previously understood.

The British Retail Consortium estimates that shoplifting cost retailers £953m last year, with a 25 percent rise in reported incidents

Mr Taylor, from the National Police Chiefs' Council, said: "There are individuals who will travel to the UK specifically to commit retail crime. We will have gangs fly into the UK in the morning and fly out in the afternoon with bags of goods.

"It is completely different to how retail crime was years ago and different to how the public perceives it too. People are seeing the UK as a bit of a soft target."

Last year, shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales hit the highest level in 20 years - since current police records began.

More than 430,000 offences were recorded last year - up by more than a third than the previous 12 months to December 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores which represents local shops, said the official ONS figures were not surprising but represent a "fraction of the true picture of shop theft".

He said: "The vast majority of incidents that take place end up not being reported because of the time taken to report the crime and the lack of follow-up from the police."

Mr Lowman added: "Thieves are stealing on a regular basis without fear of apprehension, so it's essential that every police force in the country takes theft seriously, not least because challenging thieves is one of the biggest triggers for abuse of shop workers."

Only 14 percent of shoplifting offences in England and Wales result in any kind of charges.

Last year Co-op lost £70 million worth of goods to shoplifting - despite spending £40 million on security measures.

Paul Gerrard, the Public Affairs Director of Co-op, said that shop staff are now being trained to restrain shoplifters - but they still have to release almost half of the people they catch.

He said: "The police are turning up six times out of ten now. This is a real improvement on what it was but it means that 4 times out 10 we are letting people go."

The foreign gangs are using the profits from their shoplifting crimes to fund organised crime. The criminals activities have been linked to drugs, firearms and human trafficking.

Last December, the BBC revealed that hundreds of vulnerable women and children were being trafficked to the UK solely to shoplift for Eastern European crime groups.

A BBC investigation uncovered a 100-strong gang that operates in London with members that are almost exclusively female and all trafficked from Eastern Europe.