Boots, Morrisons and M&S reveal new plan to stop serial shoplifters

Repeat shoplifters will be banned from shops and prosecuted as major retailers collaborate to stamp out theft. Retailers including Tesco, Morrisons, M&S, Boots, Primark, and Greggs will upload photos, CCTV footage, and information about repeat offenders to a shared database to tackle what's been described as a shoplifting epidemic.

A total of 516,971 shoplifting offences were recorded last year, a 20% increase on the 429,873 in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. Investigators believe that by targeting the top 10% of offenders, who are responsible for 70% of offences, it could reduce store thefts by as much.

Security workers will be able to use photo data to refuse entry to repeat offenders, and police will use the information to find serial shoplifters and collect evidence for prosecutions.

The Auror system, first developed in New Zealand under former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, is credited with slashing shoplifting rates and saving so much police investigation time that the country could employ the equivalent of an extra 450 officers. It is now deployed in 98% of Kiwi stores.

Paul Fagg, Auror's director of law enforcement, said the platform enabled retailers to tackle the "huge under-reporting issue". At present, just 5% of shoplifting incidents are reported to the police, writes The Telegraph.

It coincides with the Home Office's Safer Streets summer scheme, in which 500 towns in England and Wales have signed up to receive extra officers to crack down on shoplifting and anti-social behaviour until September 30.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who was briefed on the Auror shoplifting system by Boots on Thursday, said: "We want more retailers, more organisations, working together on schemes like this so that we can have that partnership, so that you're tackling the crime but also getting the neighbourhood police and the reassurance in local communities.

"This hasn't happened for too long, too often. People have just been working separately, in silos, and also this sort of crime has been treated as low-level. It's not. It has a huge impact on local economies and on that sense of safety at the heart of communities."