Shoplifting offences in Northern Ireland have hit a five year high with over 7,500 being reported in one year.
There has been a 14% increase in retail thefts reported since prior to the pandemic with police, with the Cost of Living crisis and organised crime gangs having an impact in the rising figures.
In 2022/23 there were 7,512 reported cases of retail theft in Northern Ireland, while there were 6,981 in 2019/20 prior to the Covid pandemic and lockdowns. There was a significant drop in shoplifting figures in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic.
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Police receive around 20 reports of thefts a day with this representing around 35% of the force's demand.
However, these figures are likely to be under-reported due to retailers choosing not to report thefts to the police.
Food is the most common item stolen from shops, representing 35% of all shoplifting cases and of this meat is the item that is stolen most frequently.
Police say they are aware of organised shoplifting gangs who have been targeting shops in order to steal high end meat products that are usually later sold on. This is alongside "shoplifting to order" where cross border crime gangs have been targeting specific high end products.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Inspector Pete Cunningham said that some of the incidents reported are a sign of "desperation" and could be connected to offenders with complex needs such as drug and alcohol addictions. He also said that the Cost of Living crisis could be playing a factor as well as it is something impacting people in every community.
Repeat offenders and the organised gangs are also a large factor in reported shoplifting cases and something that retailers are keen to clamp down on.
Inspector Cunnigham said: "Shoplifting is an offence type that has been pretty steady pre-covid and coming out of Covid we are seeing a fairly significant increase, now that being said, while we are seeing an increase we are still remain below what would be are nearest comparable force across the water, so while there has been an increase we are still doing quite well around the issue.
"Yes the figures are alarming when you look at the percentage increase, but we are having successes when compared to other areas and that is primarily due to our geography which allows the force to be very agile and we have developed strong relationships and partnerships to deal with retail theft.
"Northern Ireland has a fairly high percentage of small and medium sized enterprises so retail theft in this part of the world is more impactive because it is often families who own these stores, it is people who live in this part of the world. It is not a victimless crime when you talk about shoplifting, you are actually potentially putting a business and family through hardship from this kind of offending, so we try to step up and help out.
"Some of the offences appear more like desperation, when we look at some of the thefts it is clear that they are not for personal use and they are looking to sell the items on for whatever reasons, such as offenders having complex needs such as drug and alcohol addiction.
"It is also fair to say that the cost of living is having an impact on everyone at the minute and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a contributory factor too in the rising figures."
Inspector Cunningham said that the PSNI works closely with other agencies, retailers and umbrella groups in order to deal with retail theft and highlighted a number of measures that are in place that have had a lot of success.
This includes a retail crimewatch scheme run in partnership with Belfast City Centre Management where shoplifters are issued barring orders from a premises and if they breach this, their offence is escalated to a burglary one. This has so far led to over 100 convictions and the barring orders have had a 76% success rate in stopping repeat offenders.
A pilot scheme has also been launched in the Belfast area for Business Impact Statements, which allow a retailer to express in the court the true value of an offence, as the costs to businesses are not just from the item but in manpower and time wasted when dealing with police or possibly attending court.
Inspector Cunningham continued: "There are gangs operating both sides of the border who will come up. My professional judgement around this is that they know exactly what they are coming for so they are basically shoplifting to order.
"Thankfully our retailers are generally quite skilled around this and we get timely reports, with our road police interceptor teams working closely with them and our district officers to turn our resources around quickly and target offenders.
"One of the things we focus on is repeat offenders, which is something that impacts on industry quite a lot, and we are well aware of the implications that constant offending can have in confidence in policing.
"While policing and criminal justice is one of the solutions around this, for us it is not just the only one and we work closely with partner agencies to work with repeat offenders in order to divert them from this behaviour.
"Our Retail Crimewatch scheme, which is a UK first, has also proven to be very successful and there are quite a lot of stores in Belfast signed up to this and essentially if you are caught shoplifting, you will be served a barring notice and once they serve a barring notice, the evidence is that the vast majority, around 76%, will not offend again.
"However, those offenders who have been served a barring notice and go into any of the premises involved in the retail watch scheme, the offence type is escalated to burglary and we have been really successful in getting that off the line and there have been over 100 convictions for burglary.
"It gives our retailers a sense of security that we are taking this crime type seriously and shows we are trying to maximise criminal justice activity."
Glyn Roberts, Chief Executive of Retail NI, said that shoplifting is the "perennial issue" for retailers that has a huge impact right across the sector.
He also said that the figures are often under-reported for a variety of reasons and that the situation could be worse.
He said: "This is not a victimless crime, it has a huge impact on the retail sector, particularly independent retailers who’s margins are always very tight and when you have even small amounts of products being stolen on a regular basis, it does mount up.
"It is always an issue that should never be underestimated or devalued as a serious problem for retailers.
"We had a problem in East Belfast where some of our convenience members were victims of a meat theft, where you had organised gangs of shoplifters coming in and lifting steaks and other high end meat products.
"There isn’t any excuse for shoplifting - there shouldn’t be a culture of acceptance of buying stolen goods from some guy with a sports bag, they are being taken from local retailers, there shouldn’t be a culture of acceptance, but we can only really tackle this problem unless we work in partnership with police and the general public."
Geraldine Duggan of Belfast City Centre Management said that substance abuse issues in the city centre area have played a part in some shoplifting offences, along with cases of aggression against retail and security staff.
She also said that the organisation works closely with the police and other partners to deal with the issue and praised the results from the Retail Crimewatch scheme and its impact on repeat offending.
She said: "Having the ability to serve barring notices on offenders has been very useful in stopping repeated offending and we are very pleased with the results from it.
"This scheme is not about targeting someone who may have fallen on hard times like a young mum taking some baby food for example, but those shoplifters who are causing constant problems for retailers.
"We have been very pleased with the successes so far and this combined with our great CCTV network, means that we often have offenders caught by police quickly and items returned to stores.
"Our main focus though is on dissuading people from shoplifting in the first place and our message is simple, don't do it!"
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