Crime gangs target Christmas shoppers and deliveries – with one offence every minute ...Middle East

Criminal gangs are gearing up to carry out industrial-scale thefts in UK high streets and transport hubs this Christmas, shoppers have been warned.

While serious violence has been on a downward trend for several years, retail crime is booming, with the latest figures showing 530,000 shoplifting offences in the year ending March 2025.

That is the equivalent of one offence every minute and a 20 per cent rise on the previous year.

Theft from persons, which includes criminals snatching phones, is also at its highest level since records began in 2003.

Shoppers and travellers using busy high streets and transport hubs during the Christmas period have been urged to stay vigilant as organised gangs look to capitalise on the extra footfall.

The Met Police are currently hunting a gang who used pepper spray while attempting to steal a suitcase from a visitor at Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

At least 21 people were injured in the incident, including a three-year-old girl.

Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), said he believes organised gangs are driving the surge in retail crime, rather than petty criminals.

“This almost industrial-scale increase that we’ve seen in recent years, it can only have been driven if organised crime has said ‘we can see the opportunity here’,” he told The i Paper.

“There are many means of distributing stolen goods through any online marketplace you choose to mention.

“They can be sold as second-hand, pre-loved, whatever you want to say, the customer will be none the wiser. It makes the whole model of theft and crime very viable if you’re organised.

“I think there’s less opportunistic stealing here; I don’t think it’s people stealing to feed their family.”

In October, the Met dismantled a gang believed to have stolen as many as 40,000 phones in London and smuggled them into China in the previous twelve months.

15 people were arrested over offences ranging from street-level robberies and pickpocketing to handling stolen goods and money laundering.

Reduce the risk

Bira estimates the value of retail crime is now more than £2bn a year.

Businesses have responded by implementing a range of security measures – from sophisticated CCTV systems to permanent guards and even DNA spray.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to support them with a “crime-fighting blitz” this Christmas in towns and cities across the country.

Police crackdown on pickpockets and parcel theft

In Manchester, police officers said they expect an increase in footfall and festive parties to contribute to crime and there will be increased patrols around hotspots, including the city’s Christmas markets.

In Merseyside, police have already noticed an increase in parcel thefts and people are being encouraged to make use of parcel lockers where possible.

“Porch pirates”, where criminals steal online deliveries from doorsteps, is another strand of retail crime that has exploded in recent years.

Parcels worth £666.5m were reported as stolen across the UK in the last year, according to data obtained by the technology company Quadient, nearly £290m more than in 2024.

The Government has also announced that from spring next year there will be 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles, with new powers to tackle shop theft through the Crime and Policing Bill, including a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker and ending the effective immunity for theft of goods of and under £200.

‘It makes the country look a bit lawless’

Goodacre welcomed the crackdown announced by the Home Office but said he would be asking ministers how effective it has been.

He said several issues which came up recently have brought the matter into sharper focus.

Goodacre added: “We’ve had a retail crime action group for more than two years now.

“I think there is a wider view that lawlessness on the high street makes the country look a bit lawless.

“What we’ve noticed talking to our members about retail crime is that two or three years ago, this was not high up on their register of issues.

“They had other things like business rates to worry about.

“But now it seems every shop in every part of the country is a target, this is not just supermarkets, it’s not just convenience stores, it really is every shop is a target no matter what you are selling.”

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Mahmood said: “Shoplifting and anti-social behaviour are tearing at the fabric of our communities.

“This winter, we are launching a crime-fighting blitz with police patrolling our high streets across the country.

“This is part of our wider plans to fight crime with 3,000 more police on the beat by the spring to catch criminals and make our communities safe.”

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