Police ‘not interested’ in dealing with shoplifting, says M&S chairman
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The chairman of Marks & Spencer has claimed police are “not interested” in dealing with shoplifting after figures showed the majority of store thefts in some crime hotspots were going unsolved.
Archie Norman said retailers were being forced to spend “a lot of money” on trying to keep crime rates down, including installing new camera systems and store detectives.
Mr Norman said while shoplifting rates in M&S stores were down, he added this was “mostly” because of work by the retailer to tackle offences.
Speaking on LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, he added: “We get very little help from the police. I think we have to accept that the police are not interested in this sort of crime anymore. Whether we like it or not, that’s the way it has gone.”
Figures published last week suggested that just 3pc of shoplifting offences were being solved by police in some parts of the UK.
The first nationwide analysis of store thefts by area revealed that locations including Soho in London, Cardiff and Leeds were struggling with high crime rates. King Edward’s Parade in the centre of Eastbourne had the fewest thefts solved, with 97pc of cases having no outcome.
Mr Norman noted there had been a surge in thefts since the pandemic, while the cost of living crisis had also fuelled other criminal activity.
He added: “When people are hard up, or particularly when there’s a growth in other forms of crime, particularly drugs-related crime, then one way of financing it is to go and steal from shops… it’s understandable given what we’ve been through in the last couple of years, we’ve seen more of that.”
Last month, James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, told police to stop treating shoplifting as a minor crime amid concerns that the country is failing to get a grip on soaring offences.
Official figures show police logged 430,104 shoplifting offences last year, a rise of 37pc on the prior year and the highest level on record.
However, a smaller proportion of cases were solved by police. On a nationwide level, the proportion of cases solved fell to 10.5pc from 15pc a year earlier. In 2016, almost 28pc of shoplifting cases were solved.
Some retailers have resorted to giving shop floor workers body cameras in an attempt to deter criminals, while others have installed technology to monitor what customers are putting in their bags at self-service checkouts.
Recent research from industry body the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that incidents of violence or abuse of shop workers had risen to 1,300 a day last year from 870, compared with a year earlier. The Government announced a crackdown on the epidemic within stores last month, which included making it an offence to assault a retail worker.
Mr Norman has previously pointed the finger at gangs for driving higher crime rates. However, he has said theft is also “creeping in” among the middle class because of faulty self-checkouts.
Speaking on LBC in November, Mr Norman said shoppers were starting to steal things if items were not scanning correctly. He said: “A lot of people think: ‘This didn’t scan properly, or it’s very difficult to scan these things through and I shop here all the time. It’s not my fault, I’m owed it’.”
Met Police commander Owain Richards said the force was working with retailers across London.
He added: “We know first-hand the impact that retail crime has on staff and businesses. We have renewed our commitment to tackling shoplifting and retail crime in collaboration with the wider business community... Our call handlers will assess each and every report and make an assessment based on available lines of enquiry.”
On Monday Mr Norman also hit out at Michael Gove, the Housing Secretary, who has been blocking a multi-million pound revamp of M&S’s Marble Arch store.
Mr Gove has been forced to reconsider his decision to halt the project, after the High Court found it to be unlawful.
Mr Norman criticised how the scheme had been held up, saying: “You can’t have planning decisions made… on the likes and dislikes or peccadilloes of an individual who, incidentally, has never ever engaged with us.
“I don’t think he’s ever been around this building. He may have been into buy his pyjamas or something”
