British shops are buying stolen goods from professional shoplifters, retail groups warn

Retailers have raised the alarm over a growing trend in the UK of shops buying stolen goods from professional shoplifters working for criminal gangs to support their addictions.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said its members are experiencing “numerous” and “very blatant and direct” incidents of shoplifting. Commonly targeted items include meat, cheese and alcohol.

James Lowman, CEO of the ACS, said: “What we’re seeing is a greater volume of theft by the same people who are professional shoplifters, often to feed addiction problems. And how do they do that? Well, they resell the products.”

Lowman added that there is likely a larger market for these resold products because some businesses, particularly smaller stores, turn a blind eye to the potentially illegal origins of the goods.

Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), noted that criminal gangs have become more involved in organising shoplifting in the past year. He said: “I think 80 per cent of them are now reporting that they’re having stuff stolen that they wouldn’t have stolen two or three years ago. People are stealing pet food, pet accessories, cleaning products, kitchenware, kettles, all sorts of things.”

The ACS reported that its members recorded 5.6 million incidents of shoplifting last year, with half of those shoplifted repeat offenders. In response, convenience stores spent £339 million on crime prevention measures such as CCTV, alarms and tagging.

A former prolific shoplifter, identified only as Ross, told the BBC he stole tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods and regularly sold items to other shops. The 39-year-old, who has 15 convictions for shoplifting, estimated he stole £300 worth of goods every day to support his crack cocaine and heroin addiction.

A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said stolen goods were ending up in “unscrupulous” restaurants, market stalls and online marketplaces. The spokesman added: “It’s difficult for retailers because they do report these crimes and there are procedures they go through. But the policing is so weak at the moment that these crimes are unfortunately not being treated seriously enough.”

Stephanie Karte of Retailers Against Crime highlighted the wider implications of this trend: “Essentially they’re making money off the stuff they’re stealing and where does that money go? It goes to the drug dealer. So if you think about it and all those little things, it all ends up funding a more serious crime.”

As the problem continues to grow, retailers are demanding that law enforcement take stronger action to address this growing problem, which not only affects businesses but also leads to wider criminal activity.