Undercover police target shoplifters in a bid to fight retail crime

Shoplifting costs retailers £953 million a year, according to the British Retail Consortium and this type of crime has risen by a quarter in England and Wales in the last year.

Some 365,164 shoplifting offences were recorded by police in the year to June – that equates to over 1,000 a day and is the most since 2019, the Office for National Statistics said.

Outside of the Metropolitan Police force patch, West Yorkshire is the second worst affected region for shoplifting incidents.

Rebecca Calpin, West Yorkshire Police Chief Inspector for Neighbourhoods and Partnerships, told GB News: “It [shoplifting] is a problem and small businesses especially get targeted.

“Obviously coming up to Christmas there’s a cost-of-living crisis, you know, we are seeing an increase in shoplifting.

“So, this hopefully prevention piece that we’re doing around making it so that it’s harder for criminals to come to Huddersfield and target small businesses that are trying to make a living.

“That plain clothes team can actually just add a different variance really, so they can go in and watch, and obviously not be seen and then can apprehend offenders.”

The undercover action also supports the roll out of Smart Water forensic spray, which is an anti-theft solution to levy-paying businesses.

The liquid, which is in use in other parts of West Yorkshire, is a forensic marking technology which can be used to ‘tag’ products on shop floors - any items which are stolen can be traced back to the place they were stolen from.

Toni Ramsden, West Yorkshire Police Town Centre Partnership Sergeant said: “It involves marking high value products with specific DNA that’s linked to specific shops.

“It assists us when we arrest shoplifters with products on them and they can be linked to individual stores, and it helps with convictions in court.”

The scheme is funded by Huddersfield Business Improvement District (BID) in a bid to protect retailers’ income and safety.

Samantha Sharp, Huddersfield BID Manager told GB News: “This scheme is to send a clear message that we are watching you, so don’t come into the town centre unless you’re going to behave nicely and actually pay for your goods.

“63 per cent of retail crime is committed by repeat offenders, so the Huddersfield BID rangers know who they are, the police know who they are, hence the undercover working, so we can be proactive in our responses now and we can make a difference this Christmas.”

Shopkeepers in the town like David Whittle feel reassured by the campaign.

He owns Charlotte Jayne Ltd, a family run ladies fashion boutique in the centre of Huddersfield. The business has been targetd by shoplifters and David and the team are always vigilant in protecting their stock.

“Everything in the shop, everything, is tagged. Yes, I’m not naive, we lose one or two things,” he told GB News.

“Recently we’ve had a lady who has brought her own handbag in and left her handbag and taken a new handbag.

“You can’t be complacent, but it is fighting crime, obviously when people are hard up or they’re struggling for money then crime sometimes increases, so anything that BID and the police can do, anything that any authority can do to help, is very, very helpful.”

The rise in shoplifting has been blamed on the cost of living crisis and organised crime.