Retail crime news and archive

Revivals and reinstatements: What UK retail is demanding from the incoming government

The UK’s general election is moving swiftly upon us. With a shorter time frame than initially expected, national retail organisations are clamouring to get their requests publicly pushed out to ensure their calls for change are heard. Here are just some of what the many UK-based organisations – British Independent Retailers Association (Bira),...

Retail

Assaulting shop workers to be considered criminal offense in UK

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new measures to combat retail crime, taking a U-turn after the government previously ruled out legislating to create a new offence. Assaulting shop workers will be designated a separate criminal offense, reflecting the need to safeguard retail employees and maintaining community safety, reported...

Retail

UK’s dedicated organised crime unit to begin retailer training

A new team of the UK’s policing intelligence unit for organised crime, Opal, is set to roll out training for retailers and police forces to better understand organised retail crime groups. Through the initiative, the unit is hoping to gather, scope and analyse information about such groups from a number of different sources in a bid to identify...

Retail

BRC: UK retail crime rises to 1,300 incidents a day

A new report by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has shown that the number of incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers in the UK has risen to 1,300 a day. This reflected a 50 percent increase in the levels of retail violence, the organisation’s research noted, which covered the course of 2022 to 2023. Next to this, the cost of...

Retail

UK retailers call for widespread adoption of Scottish retail protection laws

Following a significant uptick in retail theft and crime, UK retailers are now calling on the rest of the region to more widely adopt laws to protect retail workers akin to those that have already been put into place in Scotland. The Protection of Workers Act was brought into force by Daniel Johnson, of Scottish Labour, and created a new...

Retail

Is the retail industry entering a pandemic of shoplifting?

Retail sales in September declined by 0.9 percent, while shoplifting incidents surged, with reported offenses spiking by 25 percent in the past year, totaling eight million incidents. The British Retail Consortium reported losses amounting to 1 billion pounds due to this trend. Over the year leading to June, the police recorded 365,164...

RetailFeatured

Project Pegasus: John Lewis and Next among those joining crackdown on shoplifting

As the UK continues to battle on through its cost-of-living crisis, an increasingly prominent offset of the financial crunch has become front of mind for many retailers in the region. Shoplifting and retail theft is up 27 percent across 10 of the largest cities in the UK, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which had been calling...

Retail

Retailers call on government for greater protection of shop workers

A coalition consisting of more than 30 major retail businesses are urging the British government to prioritise shopworkers with protection for from violence, abuse and anti-social behaviour. The call for stiffer penalties was signed by major retailers including Marks Spencer, John Lewis and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) after a new report,...

RetailFeatured

UK retail crime up 40 percent

The British Retail Consortium's annual Retail Crime Survey has revealed disconcerting figures. 53 per cent of retail fraud is now cyber-enabled; violence and abuse against staff has risen by 40 per cent in the past year; the overall number of retail crimes committed has risen to 3.6 million. The cost of retail crime to the industry is 660...

RetailFeatured

UK retail crime highest since records began

UK retail crime is at the highest peak since records began. The cost of retail crime in the UK soared to 613 million pounds last year, according to new figures from The British Retail Consortium (BRC). That was a 2 percent rise on 2014 and three times higher than in 2007-2008, the BRC noted. The average value of stolen goods is 325 pounds But...

RetailFeatured

Retail crime hits record breaking high of 603 million pounds in 2014

Retail crime is on the rise in the UK and reached its highest point in a decade, according to the latest data published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Retail Crime Survey. The average value of every in-store theft has increased by a whopping 36 percent over the past year, to 241 pounds per incident, which has led to the jump of direct...

Fashion

Retail crime costs 1.6 bn pounds per year

Retail crime against UK's stores and retailers has soared by 15.6 percent in a year to 1.6 billion pounds. Incidentally, fewer crimes are being reported to police. The 1.6 billion pounds covers retail crime of all types and includes the value of goods stolen and damage done plus the money retailers spend on prevention. Numbers of incidents of...