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up on the latest episodes without

1:00

the ads. Some shows may

1:02

have ads. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. The

1:09

UK's high

1:14

street stores are in the grip

1:16

of a shoplifting epidemic. Those

1:20

responsible are brazen. We

1:23

had a gang pull up in a

1:25

car. It was all masked with balaclavas

1:27

and they literally came in and wiped

1:29

half a shopper. We've had people steal

1:31

full rails of clothing, just grabbed it and

1:33

just walk right out with all the confidence

1:36

of someone who's just bought it. They're

1:41

becoming increasingly violent. They have a kind

1:43

of mode of operandum where they threaten

1:45

the staff initially and it just makes

1:47

everyone keep out of their way because

1:49

there'll be physical threats or, you know,

1:51

violence or even we've had people with

1:53

weapons come into stores as well. And

2:00

they're highly organised. We

2:04

believe we've got about 100 offenders in this

2:06

group. This particular gang

2:08

crossed over the threshold of half a million

2:10

pounds worth of stock in less

2:13

than six months. So that

2:15

is how efficient they are. Drop

2:17

the bag now. Drop the bag.

2:20

Drop the bag now. Drop the bag now. You

2:23

detained best shoplifting. A multiple offence

2:25

who? Yes. Lots of shoplifting

2:27

are up 25% over the last year. Now,

2:32

a court has heard how a shoplifter

2:35

pulled out a manager's front teeth while

2:37

trying to flee from a supermarket in

2:39

Blaenay-Quen. Island incidents like this one

2:41

in the West Midlands where a gang

2:43

overpowered security guards to force their way

2:45

into a store are becoming

2:48

more frequent. Oh my god,

2:50

Lee. Running in. Here we go.

2:53

But it's high street shoplifting,

2:55

masking something more sinister. We

2:58

noticed that they're using children and teach

3:00

them to steal. So

3:02

that would come under human slavery

3:04

trafficking. In this group,

3:07

there's definite evidence of modern slavery.

3:09

There's definite evidence of exploitation. As

3:12

we head into the busiest shopping

3:14

period of the year, Barland 4

3:16

investigates the link between Britain's shoplifting

3:18

epidemic and serious organised

3:21

crime. So that

3:23

could be human trafficking, drugs,

3:26

firearms, and the bottom of

3:28

the ladder seems to be

3:30

the shop theft which helps

3:32

to fund this serious and

3:34

organised crime. I'm

3:38

up at 6 o'clock in the morning. I

3:40

feel all agitated, rattling.

3:44

I'll put a light grey

3:46

tracksuit on and then I'll put a

3:48

black tracksuit on over that. So

3:51

if I do have to run, I do have to hide,

3:53

I can quickly change my description. So

3:55

I'm going out, I find a shop.

4:01

You may well be picturing someone like

4:03

Malachi, poor, razor thin and

4:05

with a gaunt face, he has

4:07

a twitchy, nervous energy. So

4:10

I'd think about a shop that I knew. I'd

4:12

walk past it, fast, I'd see the security on

4:14

the door, normally at that time of the morning

4:16

there's no security on. When I come out of

4:18

that shop, if somebody changes me and I've got

4:20

to run, I want to walk that route where

4:23

I'm going to run. So I'd

4:25

walk that route first to make sure there

4:27

could be police cars parked up or anything

4:29

like that. So you rehearse

4:31

your escape plan? Yeah. So

4:34

I'd do that, then

4:36

I'd go back to the shop, if there's staff

4:38

members on the door I'd just hang about until

4:40

they moved and then I'd go in,

4:43

bag out, fill it up and try it out and

4:45

my objective is to get in there at that shop

4:47

within a minute. His life story

4:49

is one you'll recognise, a well trodden

4:51

path of misfortune, a

4:53

chaotic childhood, a parent in prison

4:55

and exposed to drugs at a

4:57

very young age by people he

5:00

thought he could trust. When I was around

5:02

about eight I tried cannabis and I found

5:04

that it was far more better to escape

5:06

my reality than what my imagination was. And

5:09

then one day somebody says just have a couple of lines of

5:12

this which was heroin. How old are you at this point? Were

5:15

you paying for the drugs? How were

5:17

you getting them? Yeah, first, always shoplifting

5:20

and at first it was I didn't need much to go

5:22

out once a day but then I'm having to go out

5:24

twice a day and three times a day then before you

5:26

know it I'm going out from the second to wake up.

5:29

Every penny Maliki makes from shoplifting is

5:32

spent on feeding his drug addiction. He's

5:34

hitting five or six supermarkets a day

5:37

and it's the everyday goods he's

5:40

targeting. Things like washing

5:42

powder, coffee, chocolates, stuff he

5:44

can sell on in his local pub. So

5:46

things like meat, chocolate, things like that you

5:48

get half price for but then there's things

5:50

like clothes and things like that that you'd

5:52

only get a third for. You

5:55

might be surprised to hear just how

5:57

much Maliki was able to steal as

5:59

one man occupied operating alone. Whilst

6:01

we're together, he shows me the sums. At

6:04

the height of his offending, he was

6:06

shoplifting more than £140,000 worth of goods every year. People

6:12

would almost expect that to be the

6:15

work of a very organised, highly sophisticated

6:17

criminal gang, but actually that was just

6:19

you alone able to take that much.

6:22

I was doing an all day, every day. If

6:24

you think of you've got 24 hours in a

6:27

day, so 18

6:29

hours of them days shops are open. Even

6:31

if I go in and I only

6:34

steal £20 out of that shop

6:37

and you do that 10 times, that's £200 in a

6:39

day, it would often be a lot more than that.

6:42

But despite the huge sums of money

6:44

he was making from his crimes, he was

6:46

often in debt to drug dealers. I've

6:48

been stabbed, been slashed,

6:51

had my legs broke, I'd rather

6:53

get caught and end

6:56

up in prison than have to go out

6:58

and face the dealers who like the money.

7:02

Malachi is not alone. His

7:04

isn't a sophisticated operation. It's

7:06

opportunistic, look around, smash and

7:08

grab and go. You

7:11

may have seen it yourself in your local

7:13

supermarket. In fact, the

7:15

British retail consortium's most recent figures show

7:17

that more than £950 million worth of

7:21

goods was shoplifted over a 12 month

7:24

period between 2021 and 2022. And it's happening

7:30

more and more. Police on horseback

7:32

in vans and soot with batons

7:34

were patrolling and some shops closed

7:36

their barriers, saying some people were

7:38

trying to get inside. The

7:43

home secretary has called for those who

7:45

took part in a suspected TikTok inspired

7:47

raid of shops to be hunted down

7:49

and jailed. A flash mob of shoplisters

7:52

turning up on Oxford Street a few

7:54

months ago. Hundreds are swarming the

7:56

road. The Met are overwhelmed as they try

7:58

to contain their own. really

12:00

regard it as something as particularly serious

12:02

within our society. We end

12:05

up with this very blurry space where

12:07

this technology begins to generate a

12:09

whole series of opportunities for a

12:11

lot more people to begin

12:13

to make excuses for why perhaps they've taken

12:16

things when in lots of other circumstances they

12:18

wouldn't dream of doing that sort of thing.

12:21

For the customers, the self-checkout is a gamble

12:23

of risk and reward. It's fine

12:25

too for the retailers. They have fewer

12:27

staff to pay for, but there's also huge

12:30

lookers. The supermarket booths,

12:32

affectionately known as the Waitrose of

12:34

the North, recently became the first

12:36

supermarket in the UK to ditch

12:38

self-checkouts from all but two of

12:40

their 40 stores. They

12:43

say it's to improve customer

12:45

experience. However,

12:48

the biggest concern for

12:50

retailers isn't opportunistic shoplifters,

12:53

although stealing out of need or

12:55

addiction. It's skilled, organised

12:57

crime gangs. So this is

13:00

CCTV footage that we're looking at here. Yeah

13:02

it is. It will give you an indication of

13:04

the methods that they use and how they operate.

13:07

I'm watching professional shoplifting in action

13:09

with former police officer Adam Ratcliffe

13:11

as he shows me some of

13:13

their successful operations from last year.

13:16

Now the director of a not-for-profit

13:19

called Safer Business Network, which investigates

13:21

organised retail crime, he's talking

13:23

me through the anatomy of how

13:26

skilled shoplifters work and it's

13:28

very different from the videos you see

13:30

on social media. One of them

13:32

has gone to scout out, make sure that no

13:34

one's looking, but you can tell from the direction

13:36

of their body that they're not actually looking at

13:38

what's on the shelf, they're looking around at staff.

13:41

You can see one of the women is clearly pretending

13:43

to browse but her head is not looking at the

13:45

products. I mean I look at makeup and I

13:48

am looking at the lipsticks I want to try. And

13:50

that's it and ultimately people often ask

13:52

about what you look for. It's that,

13:54

the subtle behavioural changes that you can

13:56

look for. So this woman is acting

13:59

as a spotter. for the woman who is now

14:01

crouching down in the aisle. This

14:03

is why it demonstrates how

14:05

rushed these things can be. She doesn't have to

14:07

worry about looking around to see if she's being

14:09

spotted because someone else is doing that for her.

14:12

We've got the third person who is off screen

14:14

at the moment who is walking up and down,

14:16

acting as a normal customer but keeping an eye.

14:19

So that's two sets of eyes so the person

14:21

can bend down as they are and

14:23

start emptying the product. And the

14:25

bag she's holding wide open, it's unbranded. It's

14:27

just a big canvas bag. Yeah,

14:30

that's it, classic nondescript. And that is what

14:32

I'm talking about when we look at the

14:34

fact that it's organised crime. Organised crime is

14:36

planned. It's choreographed. You

14:39

know what you're doing. Each participant

14:41

is fully aware of what their role

14:44

is in that organised criminality.

14:46

And these three women are no exception.

14:51

Adam's team works with big High

14:53

Street retailers being targeted by organised

14:55

crime gangs to create a real-time

14:57

log of shoplifting incidents. He

15:00

pulls open his laptop to show me how

15:02

they've been tracking one particular gang. So

15:05

this is an offender map that shows the

15:07

link between the offenders and the incidents that

15:09

we're connecting as part of an organised group.

15:12

Green dots are an offender.

15:14

And the bigger the dots means the more incidents

15:16

they're involved with. So that is a way

15:18

that we can visually identify who are the prolific

15:21

offenders. As I'm looking at this graphic,

15:24

what it looks like to me is a

15:26

big tangled ball of wool with lots of

15:28

green dots in it. But each of those

15:31

tangles, those little blue lines, is

15:33

a connection from one offender and one

15:35

offence to another offender and an offence.

15:37

So what you're saying to me is

15:39

all of those green dots, which

15:42

represent people who've stolen, are

15:44

actually all linked to each other. They're all part

15:46

of the same network. Yes. And you hit the

15:48

nail on the head with the word connection. That's

15:51

what we map. We map the connections. I mean,

15:53

I can see dozens of green dots. How many

15:55

offenders are we looking at? We believe we've

15:57

got about 100 offenders in this group. heard

16:00

that right, this is a 100 strong

16:02

network, skilfully navigating London's

16:05

high streets with calculated

16:07

precision. So this group is

16:09

very specific with what they're going after. They're

16:11

not spree offenders, they know

16:13

what they're targeting and this group

16:15

are going after cosmetic stores. So

16:18

they are looking for fragrance and high

16:20

value cosmetic face creams make up. The

16:23

group hits the same beauty retailers again

16:25

and again, stealing targeted items

16:27

in bulk. They're

16:29

shoplifting with a shopping list. They

16:32

are stealing keys to the secure cabinets

16:34

within these stores where the products are

16:36

stored. They go in five, six, seven

16:38

of them at a time. They approach

16:40

the drawer, they know where they're going,

16:42

there's no meandering around. They're in, they

16:45

open the drawer, fill the bags, a

16:47

couple of them looking out, shut the

16:49

drawer again, they're gone. And because they're

16:51

stealing from the secure cabinet, these things

16:53

often aren't tagged in the same way.

16:55

So they might not set off alarms

16:58

in the same way. But are they spotted

17:00

by staff looking out? This is the

17:03

problem. They are very, very good

17:05

at what they do. They're very unassuming as

17:07

a group. They're very clever in the way

17:09

they enter the buildings. They pick

17:12

areas that are quiet. They just

17:14

pour it in. And there's

17:16

a couple of people keeping an eye out and

17:18

then they're gone. They just, they walk out.

17:21

It's not just the individuals and

17:23

MO that Adam's team have identified.

17:25

They've looked at the whole structure of

17:28

this organised shoplifting gang and

17:30

noticed a significant pattern. The

17:32

fact that it is predominantly women, now

17:34

that is by design because women

17:37

are much less likely to be

17:39

stopped by security. They're seen as

17:41

less intimidating, less likely to be

17:43

criminals or likely to get away

17:45

with this behaviour. But we have

17:47

got a handful of male members

17:50

of this group who are very rarely involved

17:52

in the actual criminality. They're not stealing, but

17:55

they are in and around the vicinity of

17:57

the premises. outside

18:00

loitering around. So

18:04

at the top, a small number

18:06

of men running the operation, not

18:08

getting their hands dirty. But

18:10

they're using women to commit the

18:12

crimes and ultimately take all the

18:15

risk. And it's not

18:17

just in London. We was arrested in

18:19

Edinburgh, but we have incidents on

18:21

them in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Australia,

18:25

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and

18:27

Dundee. Maxine Fraser

18:29

is the Managing Director of Retailers

18:31

Against Crime. Like Adam, she

18:34

too is tracking shoplifters targeting the

18:36

1500 store she covers across Scotland,

18:38

Northern Ireland and the North of

18:41

England. We hold information on

18:43

three types of offenders, local individuals who

18:45

still really to fund their addiction, whether

18:47

that's drugs or alcohol. And then you've

18:49

got lifestyle funders who basically

18:51

that's their job. You know, like you and I

18:53

have a job, that's their job. So they just

18:56

steal for a living. And at the moment we

18:58

have organised teams. Some of these are linked to

19:00

serious and organised crime. On Maxine's

19:02

system is a gang that's even larger

19:05

than the one Adam's dealing with. It's

19:07

made up of at least 154

19:10

known offenders who are currently operating

19:12

out of Scotland, but who are

19:14

targeting stores across the rest of

19:16

the UK too. This

19:18

morning I ran a report on

19:20

that team you're asking me about.

19:22

They commit high value thefts, they

19:24

distract staff, intimidate staff and

19:27

they are also pretty violent,

19:29

abusive towards staff. And

19:31

at the moment their total losses reported are

19:33

over quarter of a million. I believe

19:36

that's the tip of the iceberg. Maxine's

19:38

been monitoring this shoplifting ring for

19:40

the last four years. They

19:43

are not from the UK, you know,

19:45

they come from Eastern Europe. We

19:48

noticed that they're using children and teach

19:50

them to steal. So that

19:52

would come under human slavery trafficking.

19:54

How many children are involved in

19:56

that one group? About 15

19:59

of them. And this team actually,

20:01

although they reside in Scotland, they

20:03

initially travelled and more recently there's

20:06

probably about 10 to 15 of

20:08

them have been identified in London,

20:10

Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Darlington. Do

20:12

you know what they're doing with

20:15

the money they're receiving from

20:17

shoplifting? Do you know where that's being

20:19

funneled into? We know that

20:21

they sell a lot of the stock on markets.

20:24

They ship some abroad. We know that.

20:27

And apart from that, we do not know. But

20:30

the organised crime aspect, it could well be

20:32

it's used to bring youngsters in

20:34

from Eastern Europe. It could be

20:36

being used to enlarge their network.

20:39

Oh yes, definitely, without a doubt. Adam

20:42

Ratcliffe isn't surprised. He

20:45

says the shoplifting gangs he's going

20:47

after might be targeting local high

20:49

streets, but they're operating internationally and

20:52

linked to other serious crimes.

20:54

There's modern slavery exploitation all across

20:56

these groups. It's a godawful life

20:59

for these people. And it is

21:01

vulnerable. And these people are exploited.

21:03

Their lives are horrific. They are

21:05

living in houses of multiple occupancy,

21:08

30, 40 of

21:10

them at a time, sleeping on mattresses

21:12

in dirty rooms, being used and abused

21:14

as a criminal for financial gain. This

21:17

is one of the reasons why we want to

21:19

break this kind of criminality, is not just to

21:21

save the retailers, it's to save these victims. They

21:23

are coerced. Maxine has

21:25

another revelation. The group

21:28

she's mentioned is the biggest, but

21:30

it's one of more than 50 organised

21:32

crime groups that she currently has on

21:35

her radar. We have over 40,000 offenders

21:38

in our system at this

21:40

present time. When you say you have over 40,000 offenders

21:43

in the system, what do you

21:45

mean those people who are actively

21:47

offending? Yes, actively offending. We

21:49

keep our information strictly within data protection

21:51

guidelines. So if an individual hasn't been

21:53

active for the last 12 months, unfortunately,

21:56

we have to delete them from the system. So

21:59

these are actually. active offenders in the

22:01

past year. Wow so you've

22:03

got 40,000 people shoplifting yes

22:06

in 12 months. And at the moment we

22:08

have in our system 56 teams,

22:12

organised teams, some of these are linked

22:14

to serious and organised crime so

22:17

that could be you know

22:19

human trafficking, drugs, firearms and

22:21

the bottom of the ladder seems to

22:24

be the shop theft which you know

22:26

helps to fund this organised crime aspect

22:28

of it. She's not alone. Large

22:31

retailers believe it's the organised

22:33

crime element that's driving the

22:35

increase in shoplifting. I am

22:37

very worried about it and it's millions of pounds

22:39

for being Q and I'm sure it's

22:41

millions of pounds for other people and

22:43

although that is a very concerning figure I think

22:45

the more dramatic thing for me is staff

22:48

and colleagues safety because when I'm out

22:50

in the stores now that's the most

22:52

disturbing thing I get now and people

22:54

just trying to do their day-to-day job.

22:57

Graham Bell is the chief executive

22:59

of the DIY retailer B&Q.

23:02

They have over 300 stores nationwide and

23:05

employ over 20,000 staff. They've

23:07

put in surveillance, security measures and

23:10

even have their own crime centre gathering

23:12

information to give to the police but

23:15

it's not enough. The organised crime I really

23:17

do think that the reality is they just

23:19

don't care and they feel as if they're

23:21

above the law but a lot of time

23:24

when they do come in they have a

23:26

kind of mode of operandum where they threaten

23:28

the staff initially and it just

23:30

makes everyone keep out of their way because

23:32

there'd be physical threats or you know violence

23:34

or even we've had people with

23:36

weapons come into stores as well. They've

23:39

seen gangs enter their stores with

23:41

knives and hammers. Some offenders have

23:43

even used needles to threaten staff.

23:47

Retailers are telling staff not to confront

23:50

shoplifters and it's easy to see why.

23:52

In March the British Retail Consortium's annual

23:54

crime survey found there were over 850

23:58

violent and abusive incidents in every

24:00

day, you only need to have a quick

24:02

Google to find plenty of horrific encounters. I'm

24:04

having a look now and there's a story

24:07

in Bournemouth of a co-op worker who was

24:09

bottled by a shoplifter. Her picture's really shocking.

24:11

You can see blood gushing down her head

24:13

and neck and it says that she had

24:16

to have the wound glued back together. Another

24:19

quick search and here's a story in

24:21

Carlisle. This says a manager was bitten

24:23

by a shoplifter he confronted who was trying

24:25

to steal a laptop and if I

24:27

have another look here's a story

24:29

in Chichester of a shoplifter who threatened

24:31

sports direct staff with a knife and

24:33

these stories they're just from the last

24:35

few months. We've had staff

24:38

where we've either had to move them stores

24:40

or put them in a different department maybe

24:42

away from front facing and up for a

24:44

while maybe just to get their confidence back

24:46

up again but some of

24:48

these instances are so severe. When they

24:51

experience these incidents it's very difficult to

24:53

pick them back up again and they're

24:55

losing faith on us as a business.

24:57

Recently the policing minister Chris

24:59

Spelt was widely criticized after

25:01

he suggested that retail staff

25:04

should tackle shoplisters themselves if

25:06

in his words it was safe to

25:08

do so. But the basic

25:10

wage for your average shop worker

25:12

is only 10 to 11 pounds

25:14

an hour and tackling aggressive and

25:17

violent shoplifters isn't part of

25:19

the job description. I've been sat

25:21

on before I've been threatened with

25:23

needles I've been threatened to be

25:25

stamped I've been hit. Laura Booker

25:28

is the manager of the Bidden

25:30

Planet a comic and collectible

25:32

store in Leeds city centre the

25:35

area has the highest annual number of reported

25:37

shop deaths in the UK. Some of my

25:39

staff members have been seriously assaulted and it's

25:41

landed them in hospital and people will threaten

25:44

to come back and kill you later they're

25:46

gonna come back with someone else and sometimes

25:48

they do come back often you know we'll

25:51

leave in theatre together we'll walk home together

25:53

to our various bus stops and stuff because

25:55

we don't want to be out on our

25:57

own. How often are you getting people? trying

26:00

to shoplift or shoplifting. I

26:02

would say every day, pretty much. I've

26:04

never seen it this bad. I've worked here 15 years. Even

26:08

yesterday we had three boys come in with large hold-alls that they'd just

26:10

purchased, probably at the market because

26:12

they still had the prices on, and

26:14

just start to fill them, even

26:16

though they'd walked past the guard. Almost

26:19

every shop worker and retailer sounds resigned

26:21

and defeated when we ask about the

26:24

police response. They

26:26

tell us that the police rarely come out

26:28

when they do report shoplifters. Some

26:30

say they don't even bother

26:33

reporting incidents anymore. Just

26:35

last month, the Co-op released their own

26:37

figures, showing police forces

26:39

failed to respond to 70% of

26:43

reports of serious retail crimes in

26:45

their stores. B&Q's Graham

26:47

Bell isn't surprised. I would

26:49

say we've probably got a 1 in 10 where we

26:51

really do see auction being taken and

26:53

getting convictions, but we

26:56

are continually seeing repeat offenders and we know that

26:58

a lot of the time these things we may

27:00

well hand over and we're told that, like, they'll

27:02

come back to us if they want

27:04

any more of the police, but it kind of goes into a bit of

27:06

a black hole then. Adam

27:09

Ratcliffe from the Safety Business Network

27:11

believes it's this that has encouraged

27:13

shoplifting to thrive. During the

27:15

austerity cuts to police numbers, that was a really

27:17

principal part of this because

27:21

police are resource poor in a lot

27:23

of areas, so

27:25

they were able to attend less shoplifting

27:27

offences. What that

27:29

created then was a sense of apathy towards

27:31

reporting, you know, less than 4% of retail

27:33

crime is reported. And as a

27:36

result, the people who are offending have

27:39

started to feel that they're less likely to be arrested, and

27:41

that's why you're getting that brazen nature of it. Being

27:44

unable to be processed properly has created

27:46

this feeling that actually the odds are in

27:48

their favour now. We

27:50

asked the Home Office about Chris Stilp's comment encouraging

27:53

retail staff to physically

27:55

tackle shoplifters if it was safe. But

27:58

they didn't respond. Don't

30:00

know what's going on here. Sorry mate, what's

30:02

happened? I've been to the shop this from, er,

30:05

who, him? Has he got anything? Yeah, he

30:07

just ran off. Has he got anything or was it an attempt? He's just

30:09

jumped at it. A man has made off

30:11

with a bunch of boxes from the children's toy

30:13

shop, The Entertainer. He came behind the bus

30:15

stop. Yeah. And jumped over there to

30:17

walk in the road. OK, fair enough. Did you

30:19

get a good look at him or anything? No, what was he

30:21

wearing just because we've got others around? He was very quick. He

30:23

was going to be honest and I was going to let him

30:25

do 20 words or something. How often would something

30:28

like that happen when you're on a shift? Well,

30:30

there will be so many shoplifts that happen today,

30:32

but that, if we were there a couple of

30:34

seconds earlier, it would have been absolutely

30:36

perfect, right place, right time type thing.

30:39

Sean and his colleagues do regularly

30:41

catch shoplifters. Businesses in

30:43

the area they cover have a direct

30:46

line to their teams on the ground.

30:48

In fact, they patrol more than 20

30:50

districts around London, including Knightsbridge and Putney.

30:53

It's immediate. Within two minutes, the boys

30:55

are going to be at the

30:57

scene dealing with that incident, potentially

30:59

arresting, detaining people. David McKelvey

31:02

is Sean's boss and founder

31:04

of the private investigations company

31:06

TMI. And former Detective Chief Inspector

31:08

for The Met, he set up the

31:11

company when he realised police weren't always

31:13

able to respond. We're dealing with

31:15

those retail crimes, those shoplifting

31:17

crimes. We're catching shoplifters

31:19

continuously. I think the boys average about

31:21

20 shoplifters a week. David

31:23

has what fact groups with the local businesses

31:25

he works for, and as

31:28

we're talking, his phone constantly pings.

31:30

It gives us a constant feed of

31:32

information. So you're getting incidents through in

31:35

literally real time as they're happening?

31:37

Absolutely, yeah. What sort of incidents

31:40

have you had come through today? Well, let's have

31:42

a look. There's one just come through there, let's see what that one is.

31:44

And some was £300 worth of stock

31:47

taken with the description of what's

31:49

gone on and where they've gone. So

31:51

that's good intelligence. So we'll be out looking

31:53

for those. TMI don't just

31:56

detain and arrest shoplifters. They also

31:58

carry out private property. In

32:01

the last 10 years, they've prosecuted 300 offences

32:04

connected to retail crime. What are we

32:06

up to today? So

32:09

you haven't been stealing anywhere, no? No. No?

32:13

You look like you're about to laugh. She

32:16

needs to work on her poker face. So

32:18

the minute, you're all going to be detained on suspicion of

32:20

shoplifting. We've got 100% conviction

32:22

rate. We have access to the police,

32:25

special computer, only for those we prosecute,

32:28

so that the courts know about the criminal

32:30

histories of those we prosecute and

32:32

all of our convictions go on to the police and actual

32:34

computer. So it's no different to policing.

32:37

As David and his team crack down on

32:39

local shoplifters, larger retailers such

32:41

as B&Q and John Lewis are

32:43

paying for a new specialist police team.

32:46

They say it will build a

32:48

comprehensive intelligence picture, mapping out the

32:50

organised crime gangs in order to

32:52

go after and dismantle them. They

32:55

shouldn't be paying for things that is law

32:57

and the government should be doing it, but

33:00

this has become such a big problem now, and

33:02

I think as big retailers, we've probably got a

33:04

moral duty to help out

33:06

with our experience and get on board.

33:10

And if it is putting a bit of money behind it and

33:12

it makes our environment for

33:14

our staff safer, that would

33:16

be money well spent. Malachi,

33:19

the prolific shotlifter we heard from at the

33:21

start, was caught by the police

33:23

and has spent decades in and out

33:25

of jail for shoplifting. It's

33:27

a cycle he's found hard to break

33:30

until recently. What was

33:32

the turning point for you? So

33:35

it's a really difficult question, that is. An

33:37

incident happened where someone

33:39

tried to take my life and I

33:42

envisioned my gravestone and

33:44

what it would say on there, junky, good for

33:46

nothing. It

33:48

was a pivotal moment which crucially

33:50

coincided with an offer of help

33:53

from, of all places, the supermarkets,

33:55

Sainsbury's and the co-op, the very

33:57

retailers he stole tens of thousands of

33:59

dollars. pounds of goods from. Maliki

34:02

was offered the chance to take part

34:04

in an offenders to rehab programme which

34:06

the supermarkets were helping to fund. It's

34:08

run by Nottinghamshire and West Midlands Police

34:11

Forces and the Police and Crime Commissioners.

34:13

It specifically focuses on shotlifters

34:16

living chaotic lives with addictions.

34:19

When we meet, he's gone nearly 12 months

34:22

without taking drugs or

34:24

stealing. I know the offender

34:26

to rehab programme is funded by these businesses.

34:28

They've saved my life so they get more

34:30

loyalty automatically now. Maliki now

34:33

advises supermarkets on what they can do

34:35

to deter people from shoplifting in their

34:37

stores, suggesting changes to the

34:39

layout of shop floors and how they

34:41

can arrange their goods to prevent people

34:43

stealing in bulk. He speaks

34:45

at conferences and mentors others struggling

34:48

with addiction. It was only

34:50

this offender to rehab screen that ever offered

34:52

me a chance and I don't

34:54

wake up anymore and think where am I

34:56

going to get some drugs from. I wake

34:58

up and think you know what I'm going to go and have a coffee. Then

35:01

I'm going to go and have a shower. I'm going

35:03

to get dressed in clean clothes,

35:06

clean everything. I'm going to go

35:09

out and I'm going to try and make a

35:11

difference. It sounds like you've got a future

35:13

plan now. You've got a life plan ahead of you. Yeah

35:15

I have. Whilst Maliki

35:17

may have turned his life around, there

35:19

are wider, more systemic issues to be

35:21

wrestled with. It's the organised

35:24

criminal gangs we've heard about in

35:26

this programme who are coercing and

35:28

controlling trafficked vulnerable women and children

35:30

and using them to make millions.

35:32

Their carefully orchestrated high value

35:35

and sometimes violent thefts can

35:37

not only leave shop workers

35:39

traumatised, but the money made

35:41

can be ploughed back into even more

35:43

sinister organised crime enterprises. If we don't

35:45

do something to stop it now, it

35:48

will be like one of those cancerous

35:50

growths that will just grow everywhere and

35:53

of course it will impact the high street.

35:55

It will have major consequences because some

35:58

of these high streets are crucial. to

36:01

people, the environment, the communities. I see this

36:03

as a big moral dilemma for us as

36:05

a country. We need to buck our ideas

36:07

up and fix it. Crime

36:11

analysts Adam Ratcliffe and Maxine Fraser

36:13

are already having some success, going

36:15

after the ringleaders of the criminal shoplifting

36:18

gangs they're tracking. But

36:20

they say they can't do it alone. In

36:22

the past there's been so many different individuals who've

36:25

kind of blamed it on the police. But

36:28

then really, Dashi, how can you blame it

36:30

on the police when their resources have been

36:32

stripped? To me, in my opinion,

36:34

this is. More resource should

36:36

be provided to the police by government,

36:39

not taken away. Most important

36:42

is that the judiciary must do more and

36:44

should not allow certain offenders out in bail.

36:47

In particular, if they've been violent and attacked staff,

36:51

it's really the aspect that there are

36:53

no consequences. And really,

36:55

if action's not taken, it'll become unfixable.

36:58

Retailers are telling us that it's crippling them.

37:01

We are going to lose returns if we don't get

37:04

off of this. They are losing

37:06

staggering amounts of money. And

37:08

they are spending a million of the

37:10

amount of money to a new presenter. It

37:13

costs 1.9 million every year to

37:16

try and prevent this crime. And

37:18

half of that in on preventative measures, the

37:20

other half is the loss itself. That's

37:23

not sustainable for retailers who are already

37:25

still in a position of trying to

37:27

recover post-COVID. We cannot keep

37:29

going with crime at this level.

37:31

And this is not being addressed. It's

37:34

funding all the lowest crime. It needs to be

37:36

dealt with on all the lowest crime, not now

37:38

with I should be missing. And so that's our

37:40

back. This

37:45

File on 4 podcast was prevented by

37:47

me, Dashiani Navanayagam, and produced by Kate

37:50

West and Holly Kennens, and

37:52

the technical producer was Sue Stone Street, and

37:55

the production coordinator was Tim Fernley. The

37:58

editor was Carl Johnston. long-form

38:00

audio production for BBC Sounds, where

38:02

you can find more radio, music

38:04

and podcasts. If

38:07

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38:09

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38:13

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38:15

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