Britain is "marching to anarchy" as a hidden epidemic continues to sweep across the nation, with almost three thefts being reported a minute, official crime statistics show.
In the year to March, shoplifting rose 20 per cent to a record high of 530,643 offences being reported to police.
It was up from the previous year's total of 444,022, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The rate of shoplifting is almost double from two decades ago, equating to more than 10,000 thefts a week or 1,400 a day.
That’s nearly three offences per minute during the average UK store opening times of 9am to 6pm.
In a GB News op-ed, retired journalist Colin Brazier said while the focus remained on “obvious spasms of violence”, including the migrant hotel clashes, the rise in theft evidenced Britain’s moral collapse.
“It strikes me as interesting as while all the focus is on obvious spasms of violence, such as migrant hotel clashes, stabbings in the streets, etc, it's actually the more discreet transgressions that signal Britain's moral collapse as these crimes are more widespread,” he said.
“This 'normalisation' is deeply worrying.”
OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS
|Crime in England and Wales year ending March 2025
Brazier continued by saying “retail theft is a bellwether crime”.
He added that it was on the rise and reports showed that “one in four Britons” had personally seen someone in the act of stealing from a shop.
“This news may not convulse the nation as a major murder might,” he said.
“But its growing prevalence is a national scandal.”
GB NEWS/ONS
|Total shoplifting offences since 2003
Brazier referenced a social media post he made which highlighted that “stealing had become normalised, without shame or sanction” in many parts of the UK.
“This marks another milestone in the UK’s slow march to anarchy,” he said.
The recent figures by the ONS are the highest since records began in March 2003, and The Telegraph reports the crisis adds at least 6p to every store transaction by customers.
The British Retail Consortium calculates losses to be about £1.8billion each year, along with an extra £700million going towards security.
GETTY
|Shoplifting crimes have reached record highs
However, the police-recorded figures represent a mere five per cent of the total amount of stolen goods with shops only making police reports when an offender is caught.
Former Scotland Yard Police detective Peter Bleksley told GB News: "Shoplifting is a deep scourge and a blight on our once great nation.
"Thieves act with impunity as they know there is a very low chance of being detained by shop staff due to intervention policies.
"They also know they are unlikely to be arrested by police and judges' sentences are pathetically lenient.
"Deterrents simply do not exist".
"Forces like the Met Police have launched initiatives which I welcome," he said, "but it remains a crime that is simply out of control."