Almost half a million shop thefts in year to March 2024, Office of National Statistics reveals

Shoplifting offences reached almost half a million incidents in the year up to March 2024, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics.

Its latest Crime Survey reported a 30% increase in shop theft, with the total number of offences rising to 443,995.

The data follows the last release of figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales in April 2024, which also reported record increases in theft on the previous year.

Moreover, data from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) Voice of Local Shops Survey has shown that theft has been increasing every quarter since mid-2021, reaching new record highs at the end of 2023 and then breaking that record in the first half of 2024.

The ACS Crime Report estimates that convenience retailers have recorded over 5.6m incidents of theft over the last year.

Chief executive of ACS, James Lowman, explained that most of these crimes against retailers are carried out by organised gangs: “The gangs that are committing the majority of these crimes against retailers are typically organised, stealing to fund other criminal activity or drug and alcohol habits. They are often stealing to order, targeting higher value items to sell on to normal people who are struggling with the cost of living.”

Lowman said it’s essential that every police force in the country takes theft seriously because ”thieves are stealing on a regular basis without fear of apprehension” and ”challenging thieves is one of the biggest triggers for abuse of shopworkers”.

In the King’s Speech earlier this month, the new Labour government set out initial details of its Crime and Policing Bill, which promises to ‘introduce stronger measures to tackle low level shoplifting’, as well as introducing a separate offence for assaulting a shopworker.

Speaking to Convenience Store, Susan Connolly of Connolly Spar store in Tidworth, Wiltshire, urged the new government to prioritise retail crime.

“I hope to see a lot of action on crime,” she said. “It’s affecting our stores and many others throughout the UK. And when I say crime, I don’t just mean shoplifting. I’m also referring to armed robberies and more action needs to be taken because this issue is not taken seriously in my view. So, I think that’s the main thing I’m looking for.”