'Thief looked me in the eye and said "you can't touch me" as he raided shelves'

Résumé détaillé

Official data shows police forces across England and Wales recorded 502,011 shoplifting offences in 2025-26 alone - leaving retail staff exhausted

Watching on as a shoplifter systematically filled a basket with stolen goods, shop worker Jo was forced to endure a brazen taunt.

"You can't touch me. If you touch me, I'll have you in court. I can hit you, but you can't touch me.”

The 62-year-old convenience store team leader had to stand in silence, bite her tongue, and watch him walk out into the street unchallenged. "Most shifts, we’re hit,” Jo reveals. “The majority of the time, these aren’t people stealing because there’s a cost-of-living crisis - they are career criminals feeding drug habits, and you don’t know what you’re dealing with.

"These people who are coming in and filling baskets in front of you, they know what they're doing. They know that you can't touch them.”

As part of our Let’s Respect Retail campaign, the Daily Mirror has teamed up with the Retail Trust to celebrate Britain’s hero retail workers and delivery drivers - giving them the chance to win them a £500 voucher

Police forces in England and Wales recorded 502,011 shoplifting offences in 2025-26, a 5% drop on the year before but still well above pre-pandemic levels.

But the crisis is being driven by a small number of reoffenders, according to figures from the Centre For Social Justice.

Earlier this year, the think tank warned that 67% of convicted shoplifters go on to commit another offence within 12 months, up from 55% before the pandemic.

In total, convicted shoplifters were responsible for more than 131,000 repeat offences in the latest data 2023-24 figures – a 66% surge that points to a growing scourge of career criminals plaguing Britain’s high streets.

Début de l'article, extrait de Daily Mirror. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.