Shoplifting has effectively been decriminalised because police won’t turn up in time, shopkeepers have claimed.
Bermondsey business owners said the problem is the worst they have ever known, with thieves waiting outside stores and stealing items the moment staff members turn their backs.
Their comments come as new research by Southwark Liberal Democrats shows just six per cent of the 3,834 shoplifting offences reported to the Metropolitan Police in Southwark over the last three years resulted in someone being charged.
A Freedom of Information request submitted to the Met Police revealed that total shoplifting cases in the borough had increased by almost half (47.9 per cent) from 1,083 in 2021 to 1,602 in 2023. Incidents involving a weapon more than doubled in three years, from just 40 in 2021 to 89 in 2023.
Despite the rising number of cases, research shows police failed to attend almost 59 per cent of calls about shoplifting in 2023, up from around 49 per cent two years ago.
At Bermondsey’s Tesco Express branch on Southwark Park Road on December 18, team manager, Ayodeji, was standing by the self-service checkouts keeping watch until security turned up later in the day.
The 47-year-old said: “There are some serial shoplifters. There’s nothing that we can do about them. That’s what they intend to do. And then there are opportunistic shoplifters. My powers are limited. It’s just making myself visible and available so they [the shoplifters] see me until security comes in.”
He added that the lack of consequences shoplifters face, even when caught, meant there was nothing to deter them from stealing. Ayodeji said: “Society has permitted it [shoplifting] because they know when they are caught nothing will happen. The police, when you ring them, their response is poor. It’s not encouraging.”
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Across the road in Poundland, assistant manager Majeed, 35, agreed that the police’s response wasn’t good enough. He said: “When we call the police, they give us an estimated time of an hour. Do you think someone is going to wait there for an hour?”
“As soon as security goes on a break, they walk in and take the stuff. Every single day it’s happening, multiple times a day. Everything they are stealing. It’s whatever they find. There’s no way to stop them: one comes after another.”
Jack Shah, 56, owner of men’s clothing shop Blu1, said shoplifting on the street was a “regular occurrence.”
Mr Shah said businesses on the road used to have walkie-talkies so they could inform each other about suspected thieves, but that they had abandoned the system a few years back due to the cost of it.
He added: “They’re not afraid of the cameras. In the New Year, we’re trying to set up a business watch scheme. Until then we keep our eyes and ears open and we talk to neighbours.”
In Savers, a discount health and beauty shop, manager Talat Khan was stocking shelves near the door. He said that if he left the aisle closest to the store’s entrance, shoplifters would sometimes come in within seconds and make off with products.
He said: “They will steal anything: 50p items, 40p things. You can understand the expensive items, but 30p it’s mad. It has got worse recently. If I move away from this aisle [by the door] they will do it.
“They sit across the road and watch, then they grab what they can get and run out. If we work in this corner, they will go to the other aisles and we can’t be in two places at the same time. They’re sometimes in groups and sometimes on their own. They will get whatever they can get. There’s no specific item they will target.”
The Met said demand meant it was “not realistic” that officers could respond to every shoplifting incident, but said police would attend in certain cases where the suspect was at the scene and the situation was likely to become violent.
A spokesperson added: “A London-wide roll-out of Op Retail is now in place, following a successful pilot, allowing more effective and stream-lined reporting of shoplifting where no offender has been detained or violence occurred. This provides consistency and confidence for retailers to report crimes.
“We work with retail leads in London and we know first-hand the impact shoplifting and attacks on shop workers is having on individual staff and the wider business community.”