Despair as brazen shoplifters hit Stratford shops – but police call on more crimes to be reported to tackle the problem

Stratford echoes what is happening nationally, where Office of National Statistics figures show a 25 per cent rise in shoplifting – with 342,343 offences recorded in the year to June.

In Warwickshire there were 2,592 shoplifting offences in the same period – up from 2,194 in 2022. Police say they take these crimes seriously and want people to report them, but that message may not be getting through in some areas despite a spate of publicised arrests.

One manager of a health food outlet described how individuals well known to police locally visit the shop to steal items. He said: “They enter the shop on a daily basis and very blatantly help themselves to stock and leave with it. The cash value loss varies from £25 to £50.

“We have contacted the police directly and have had them attend to an incident where the usual suspects were threatening staff and customers; the police response was indifferent at best.”

It’s not just businesses that are outraged by the blatant thefts.

Stratford resident Nick Willmore shared a story on Facebook about an incident he saw which drew hundreds of comments from others calling on police to take more affirmative action.

Mr Willmore, who works in a delivery service and is regularly at Maybird, said: “I witnessed a man walk out of M&S at the Maybird with about £200 of meat. He could hardly carry it all!

“Brazen as you like, he just walked past the female member of staff who watched him go. I asked her what they were going to do, and the reply was ‘nothing’ – and that he was ‘known to be violent’.

“When I suggested they ring the police the response was, ‘There’s no point, they won’t even come and take the details, they won’t be interested.’”

Mr Willmore concluded: “What an appalling state of affairs… it’s lawless and utterly depressing.”

Another Stratford resident, who preferred not to be named, described how he saw people helping themselves to lunch at Pret A Manger. He said: “One of the people that hang around the NatWest Bank came into Pret behind me and picked up a sandwich from the display, waved it at the girl behind the counter who gave him the OK and off he went.

“I presumed that Pret must have some kind of charitable deal going on with those people, but no. The server told me they let them take whatever they want. They had tried to stop it in the past but were threatened with violence. Naturally they reported it to the police, but were told ‘not to antagonise them’.

“I was shocked and stunned. Are we law-abiding citizens just supposed to put up with not only anti-social behaviour but also witnessing brazen daylight thieving and just accept it because the police can’t be bothered to do anything about it?”

The idea that officers ‘aren’t interested’ was expressed by another retailer who repeated a common belief that police ‘won’t come out for anything worth less than £200’.

It’s an accusation that Inspector Ben Hembry of Stratford Safe Neighbourhood Team says simply isn’t true, and that the police want to encourage such crimes to be more widely reported.

“It is a bit of myth,” Insp Hembry told the Herald. “I can imagine that as a retailer they think that because it’s a low amount that nothing will happen. The reality is that under the criminal justice system when someone commits an offence there needs to be public interest in taking someone to court. That doesn’t mean the police won’t take action. If you are a complainant and you’re telling me that there has been a theft, regardless of the amount, I am duty bound to report it.

“If it doesn’t go to court, it’s because it’s not in the public interest to spend thousands of pounds taking it in front of the magistrate – then that’s a different kettle of fish and not something the police are responsible for.”

Far from ignoring reports, Insp Hembry says the force is keen that the message to the public and retailers is to keep telling them about shoplifting incidents, no matter how small.

“One of the issues we have is apathy around reporting,” said Insp Hembry. “I don’t blame retailers that it’s happening often to. And some of the national chains have a policy where they don’t report thefts under a certain amount – and take it as part of their profit and loss. The problem with that is it encourages repeat offenders to continually offend at that lower level.”

To counter the problems, police are working with the Warwickshire Retail Crime Initiative (WRCI) to encourage better reporting.

WRCI runs the Bard Watch scheme, working with BID, Stratford District Council and CCTV operators to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in retail and licensed business premises. In Stratford town centre there are 75 business members who use an app to report crimes and share information on known offenders.

WRCI board member Peter Guillaume said he was hopeful that an increase in shoplifting incidents in the town was down to better reporting rather than more actual crimes.

“In the last 12 months Stratford retail members have submitted 229 incident reports, an increase on the previous period. The county retail figure is 1,532 incidents. This is not necessarily an increase in offending but better use of the DISC App by members and an increase in Stratford membership funded by BID.”

Warwickshire police crime commissioner Philip Seccombe lent his support to WRCI with a £10,000 grant during last month’s Safer Business Action Week (16th to 22nd October).

He said: “The level of incidents involving some form of violence in our shops and licensed premises is simply unacceptable, as is the level of prolific offending against these businesses.

“The funding I have given to the WRCI aims to support the development of better links between police and retailers to stamp out this kind of offending and give greater confidence to businesses to report crime in the first place.

“WRCI members have a wealth of vital intelligence which could assist the police by forging these closer links, more targeted action can be taken against offenders. It is already delivering some concrete results and I hope to see further successes in the future.”

RECENT ARRETS

STRATFORD officers attended a call on Sunday, 19th November at around 2.14pm to reports of a man shoplifting in Poundland.

They said: “We located him after a short foot chase onto Henley Street. The male was subsequently arrested for shoplifting and the stolen items recovered. A search of the male also resulted in us locating Class A and Class B drugs in his possession.”

The man was charged with possession of Class A and Class B drugs as well as shoplifting. He will appear in court next month.

On Friday, 10th November a 74-year-old man from Northampton was arrested at a supermarket in Stratford and later charged with shoplifting.

Stratford police were called to a local supermarket on Friday, 9th November asking for assistance with a detained suspected shoplifter.

On attendance, officers were greeted with a man (not local to Stratford) who had been stopped for theft. It later transpired that this man had been responsible for a number of similar incidents around the Warwickshire area over the past few months. It’s believed that this offender had stolen around £665 worth of items before trying to make off. The man was arrested and taken to Leamington Police Station.

The next day, Saturday, police arrested a 24-year-old woman from Stratford following a call from a pharmacy.

Officers said: “With help from our friends at the district council’s CCTV team, we caught up with her on Clopton Road. She has subsequently been charged with. She’s set to appear before magistrates in December.”

On the evening of 6th November, a man from Stratford was arrested after a call by a business on the Birmingham Road. The male was arrested for theft, assault and drug offenses.