Repeat shoplifters to be tagged so they can be banned from shops

Repeat shoplifters are to be tagged so they can be tracked and banned from high street stores under a package of measures to crack down on an epidemic of thefts.

Persistent shoplifters will face “three strikes and out” where judges and magistrates will be expected to make them wear GPS tags if they are sentenced on three separate occasions.

Police and probation officers will be able to impose exclusion zones banning repeat shoplifters from shopping centres and harness the minute-by-minute data on their movements to link them to any crime.

Assaulting a shop worker will become a standalone criminal offence with a maximum sentence of six months in jail and/or an unlimited fine. Offenders will also be placed under criminal behaviour orders, barring them from specific shops or premises, with a prison sentence of up to five years if they breach them.

Special police units with mobile facial recognition cameras will be deployed to city and town centres to help track down criminals wanted by the police including repeat shoplifters.

The measures come as the number of shoplifting offences have risen by more than 30 per cent to a record 1,300 a day, topping 400,000 in a year for the first time.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported earlier this year a doubling in losses from thefts to £1.8 billion and an increase in incidents of violence or abuse of shop workers from 870 to 1,300 a day.

Rishi Sunak said: “I am sending a message to those criminals whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough.”

In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, Chris Philp, the Policing Minister, said the Government wanted a “zero tolerance approach” to shoplifting. “Let’s not forget the perpetrators of shoplifting are not Dickensian victims of a cruel welfare state. They are often serial offenders – and they come from all walks of life,” he said.

The decision to tag shoplifters mirrors a similar requirement for burglars where courts have enforced tagging as a condition of their licence so they can be tracked every minute of the day.

Any breach of the tagging order would see the shoplifter returned to court for a breach of their licence which could include a jail sentence if it had been originally suspended.

Tories in line with Labour

Ministers had previously resisted calls for a specific offence of assaulting a shop worker, arguing that it was already an aggravating factor in an offence of ABH, so meriting a tougher sentence.

The decision to go ahead with it brings the Tories in line with Labour which committed to such a move as long ago as its 2015 election manifesto. The new offence had also been demanded by retailers and shopworkers’ unions.

As with shoplifters, there would be a presumption for courts that any offender found guilty of assaulting staff three times would be required to wear a tag as part of any punishment.

As part of an £55.5 million extra for police technology, £4 million has been earmarked for the bespoke mobile units with facial recognition technology to identify criminals wanted by police including repeat shoplifters.

The measures expand on an agreement with police last October that they will attend shoplifting incidents if there is violence against a store worker, a suspected thief is detained or officers are needed to secure evidence. Police chiefs said it was “not realistic” for officers to respond to every shoplifting incident.

Retailers have been encouraged to send in CCTV pictures of all shoplifting suspects which officers will check against the police national database’s 20 million images using facial recognition technology.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the Government had still failed to ditch the rule that means that shoplifting of goods under £200 does not need to be investigated by police. “This Tory ‘Shoplifter’s Charter’ has left local businesses and retail workers at the mercy of criminals,” she said.

“We have been calling for assaults on shopworkers to be made a standalone offence for years. Why has it taken the Government so long to act?”

Assaulting a retail worker is a disgrace – it will not go unpunished

By Chris Philp, the Policing Minister

Stealing from others is inexcusable. Threatening or abusing a retail worker is disgraceful.

Stealing from shops is not an innocuous act, and I won’t allow it to be treated as such – it can run livelihoods into the ground and make people feel unsafe. Turning a blind eye undermines the core values we hold in Britain and the foundations of law and order that protect our society.

Whether it’s a local business, or an established high street name, shops help give life to local communities up and down the country.

And it is only through the hardworking dedication of retail workers – shopkeepers, shelf stackers, cleaners, security guards – that these businesses can thrive, and our local communities are able to depend upon.

What is undoubtedly unacceptable, is that if you speak to anyone working in retail, they will tell you of the verbal abuse and sometimes violent assaults they’ve been victims of, simply for trying to do their job.

The latest British Retail Consortium Crime Report estimated that there were 1,300 incidents of verbal abuse and assaults each day in shops across the UK.

In no other workplace would this be accepted.

Perpetrators come from all walks of life

And let’s not forget the perpetrators of shoplifting are not Dickensian victims of a cruel welfare state.

They are often serial offenders – and they come from all walks of life.

Last year, in response to the threat posed by rising shop theft I commissioned the police to devise a targeted plan to tackle retail crime and secured several commitments from law enforcement to improve their response to shoplifting.

This included a promise to increase police attendance at the scenes of retail crime and prioritising cases involving violence against a shop worker or where the offender had been detained by a security guard.

And we set out the vital role facial recognition technology can play in tackling this crime by making clear that where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police need to run this through the Police National Database.

Since then, I have been meeting regularly with police and retailers listening to their experiences and working on solutions.

Progress is being made. Both retailers and the police have reported improvements to the police’s response to shop theft following this action plan’s launch.

But the Prime Minister, Home Secretary and I want to go further and faster, because nothing other than a zero-tolerance approach to this crime will do. So today we have published an enhanced plan to fight back against retail crime.

Offence to assault a retail worker

We are making it a stand-alone offence to assault a retail worker, sending a clear message that there will be tough consequences for this unacceptable behaviour. My respect goes to all the retailers and to Matt Vickers MP for their longstanding campaigning on this issue.

The offence will come with a potential six months in prison, or an unlimited fine – and upon conviction, it is expected that courts will attach a Criminal Behaviour Order, which could bar offenders from visiting affected shops or premises. Breaching an order is also a criminal offence and carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.

Following a third sentencing for assaulting a retail worker, perpetrators will be electronically tagged and monitored, to crack down on reoffending and ensure those continuing down a path of violent behaviour will be met with further consequences. For the most serious violent offenders of assault, custodial sentences of up to life in prison are already available.

And to tackle serial shoplifters, who contribute to a significant amount of overall shop theft, we will make sure they also face punishment by imposing a presumption of tagging for those who have been sentenced three times or more.

Meanwhile, we will continue to seek to harness the latest technology to both prevent and detect retail crime. £55.5 million will be invested into ramping up police use of facial recognition technology over the next four years, including £4 million for bespoke mobile units that can deploy live facial recognition in crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police  – including those repeat shoplifters – as well as deterring crime in the first place.

The investment we have already made in this capability is already making a difference. In my own constituency of Croydon, when facial recognition was deployed, there were over 80 arrests for a wide range of serious offences including rape, burglary and drug supply.

We must not forget – the trend in retail crime runs counter to the widespread successes we’ve had in our fight against crime. Since 2010, violent crime is down 51 per cent and neighbourhood crime has declined 48 per cent in England and Wales.

Our plan is working, but we will not cease in our efforts. The gloves are off in our fight back against retail crime and we will not turn our backs on retail workers.