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According to the latest official figures, reports of shoplifting to police in England and Wales rose by 13 per cent over the year to June, although analysts said the rise in thefts at retailers appeared to be easing.
The figures also showed that fraud cases rose by 14 percent year-on-year, driven by a 19 percent increase in bank and credit account fraud, much of which was fully reimbursed by banks.
Police Minister Sarah Jones praised figures showing a decline in the most serious violent crimes, such as murder, as evidence that the Government is making “real progress” in protecting vulnerable young people.
However, she acknowledged that the levels of shoplifting and street crime were “completely unacceptable”.
The figures published on Thursday combine results from the England and Wales Crime Survey – considered the most reliable gauge of crime levels – and police recorded crimes, which vary widely depending on victims’ propensity to report offenses and police recording practices.
The crime survey shows that 9.3 million crimes were committed in England and Wales in the year to June, compared to 9.2 million the year before.
Since the pandemic, the number of reports of shoplifting has increased sharply, partly due to organized crime and the reduction in the number of staff on shop floors.
The CEO of frozen food retailer Iceland, Richard Walker, earlier this month called shoplifting a “low-level war” costing the company £20 million a year.
But Billy Gazard, a statistician at the Office for National Statistics, pointed out that the figures for the year to June were marginally lower than those for the year to March.
“While the number of shoplifting crimes continues to rise year after year, there are signs that the rate at which reports of these violations are increasing is slowing,” Gazard said.
Shoplifting figures are particularly vulnerable to changes in local police reporting practices and retailers’ confidence that reporting violations is worthwhile. Year-on-year figures from Northamptonshire Police, which has set up a special unit to make it easier for retailers to report shoplifting, showed a 46 per cent year-on-year increase in offences, the highest for any police force.
The increase in the number of fraud offenses is the result of crime research, which is collected from interviews with citizens about their experiences with crime. They suggested that around 4.1 million fraud crimes took place this year, around 44 percent of all crimes highlighted in the survey.
However, according to the research, only 3 million of fraud offenses resulted in a loss, while respondents said in 2.2 million cases the loss was fully reimbursed.
Both crime research and police-recorded crime rates reflect the ongoing, thirty-year decline in violent crime experienced across much of the developed world.
The number of murders and manslaughters recorded by police fell by 6 percent to 518, the lowest level since comparable figures began in March 2003.
The crime survey recorded 1.13 million incidents of violence, with or without injury. While that represented a 1 percent increase on the previous year, the ONS said it was not large enough to be statistically significant.
However, the number of thefts from the person – robbery – recorded by the police was up 5 percent year-on-year.
