‘I ain’t nicked nothing ... yet’: British retailers at a loss over shoplifting epidemic

I was next in the queue on Monday evening at my local Sainsbury’s on a garage forecourt near Clapham Common.I recognised the man behind the counter as one of the managers, a friendly south Asian who was often up for banter. Just not on Monday.As the customer in front of me left, the manager beckoned me forward and I plonked my basket down. Just then, he glanced down at the bank of screens below, then sprinted out from behind the counter.Two aisles away, just out of sight of the rest of us in the queue, we heard the scene unfolding like a radio play. The manager had clearly spotted a suspected shoplifter on the screens and ran out to make an interception.READ MOREWe heard him loudly remonstrating with a person out of our eye line. “You’ve got to leave, you’ve got to leave,” he shouted, over and over. “Go, go. Out!”Then we heard a woman’s mock-surprised response, sounding almost comedically indignant in her south London patter: “Wait, what? But I ain’t done nuffin’ yet!”Grinning, I caught the eye of a woman behind me in the queue, before she, now smiling broadly, glanced at the teenage girl with her. Between us, we mouthed the suspected shoplifter’s unintentionally humorous defence: “But she hasn’t done anything ... Yet.”Britain has experienced a shoplifting epidemic in recent years. Recorded offences have doubled since 2021. But this is an epidemic that doesn’t just exist in the office-bound realm of statistical reports. Anybody can see it any time they go to the shops.[ Forty-one people due in court following Garda shoplifting crackdownOpens in new window ]I have become inured to seeing people stuffing items down their fronts and marching out of stores in London and elsewhere in Britain. It’s as common a sight as a black cab.Statistics suggest the problem began to spike during the cost-of-living crisis and inflation spiral that swept through Britain after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The issue has since been adopted by the more excitable elements of Britain’s press as yet more evidence of the country’s moral and social decline.The sentencing this year of the Greenford Hamster was a case in point.Greenford is a nondescript west London enclave, a working suburb with row after row of Edwardian terraced homes. It’s the sort of place that has few pretensions but plenty of high-street footfall, ordinary people going about their business.Like other towns of its ilk, Greenford also has a Greggs, the oft-maligned but more often-visited UK fast food chain. It is most associated with sausage rolls, but sells everything from pizza slices to breakfast baguettes and cake. In Britain’s cultural lexicon, Greggs is the closest thing to Ireland’s obsession with the breakfast roll delis of Centra and Spar.Greenford’s Greggs was targeted early this year by a prolific local shoplifter, Adam Gosling. In a six-week period from last December 30th to February 10th, Gosling stole from the same shop at least 38 times. Weary staff nicknamed him the Hamster.In February, he appeared at a local magistrates’ court, where he admitted the 38 offences. Prosecutors said he sometimes visited Greggs several times a day. Over six weeks, he stole at least £1,800 worth of goods. He walked free with a suspended sentence.The case of Greenford’s Hamster became national news. The story included several cultural touchstones: the widespread belief that Britain’s social fabric is fraying, the even wider belief that courts are “soft on crime”, the stereotypically British setting of a Greggs, and typical English banter about the thief’s furry rodent nickname.It was rarely mentioned that Gosling was homeless and, clearly, living a chaotic life. He stole food, sometimes hot items, which would have limited sell-on value. He may have been consuming much of it himself. The Hamster was no criminal mastermind.UK police forces and the government have suggested lately that the shoplifting epidemic has peaked. The rate of growth in recorded offences has slowed. The British Retail Consortium says recorded offences barely scratch the surface of what is happening.The industry traces the genesis of the current situation to a 2014 law that made shoplifting of items under £200 a low-value summary-only offence. Retailers say this gave virtual impunity to low-level but prolific shoplifters such as the Hamster.The Labour government has now updated the 2014 law to abolish the £200 clause. Shoplifters can, theoretically, now face sentences of up to seven years for thefts which were previously dealt with summarily under a maximum six-month sentence cap. In practice, it is often just fines.Yet Britain’s Home Office has yet to sign the commencement order for the new rules, because the courts and prisons are clogged up and the justice system is unprepared for a raft of new shoplifting prosecutions at crown court level. About 650 prisoners were let out early on Tuesday alone, under a government scheme to relieve overcrowding.Back at Sainsburys on Monday, the woman, who also looked as if she lived a chaotic life, left the store while being videoed by the manager. He said he was ringing police.“Ring the police,” she shouted as she backed out the door.“I ain’t nicked nothing. Wasting police time is illegal too, you know.”