Portsmouth retail staff face 'daily' aggressive behaviour from shoplifters

  • Retail staff are facing threatening behaviour daily, as Siri Hampapur reports

Retail staff say they face daily 'scary, aggressive and threatening behaviour' from shoplifters.

Across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight there has been a dramatic rise in retail thefts, with 13,024 reports over the past year - which is up by nearly 40%.

Staff member at River Island, Rebecca Mudie, said: "I’ve had to fight people off at the door trying not to let them in the shop but unfortunately they will make their way in if they want to get into the shop.

Rebecca Mudie works as the host at River Island on the high street in Portsmouth.

"It’s scary for people to come into work and have to deal with these people that are shoplifting from us and being aggressive.

"The shop suffers, the company suffers, and personally I suffer as well because they can be aggressive towards me on a daily basis.

"It is not a victimless crime in any way shape or form."

Staff at Sainsbury's are among retailers in Portsmouth working with the police to help stop these crimes.

Customer training manager at Sainsbury's, Daisy Potter, said: "Our incidents range from relatively mild, coming in swiping the shelves and leaving again, to more extreme examples where shoplifters come in and when asked to leave they smash glasses, threaten staff.

"Our store's guard has been assaulted numerous times by different groups of people."

When asked about the impact this has on the business and customers, she said: "Once there’s a shortage and availability issues with products, prices can go up.

"A lot of people rely on daily reductions but when things are being cleared off the self there’s not an opportunity to reduce them for the customers that come in specifically for that."

A new dedicated city centre unit in Portsmouth means more feet are on the ground to respond to incidents. Credit: ITV News Meridian

Hampshire Constabulary has been working with businesses in Portsmouth city centre to help them report shoplifting more easily.

Officers say they are now using facial recognition technology, which involves businesses handing footage over to police which is run through a database to help identify the criminals.

It has led to more people pleading guilty when cases go to court due to the evidence against them.

Hampshire police say the businesses and the people who work in them are the victims of this crime. Credit: ITV News Meridian

Chief Constable for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, Scott Chilton, said: "I know that a lot of business owners haven’t been reporting shoplifting, that’s both independent shops and larger organisations.

"Now we’ve got more dedicated patrol officers in neighbourhood teams, we’ve got beat bobbies out there speaking to people, a different policy for deploying to these types of crimes.

"I’ve also got specialist officers working behind the scenes - targeting those prolific offenders who are trying to make a living out of shoplifting."

Sentences for shoplifting can range from community orders and fines to jail terms of around 12 weeks.

The county's Police and Crime Commissioner is calling for tougher sentences and see shoplifters behind bars for longer periods.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones: "It's really important that judges and magistrates sentence appropriately.

"So I’ve also been in contact with all members of the judiciary across the police force area to make sure that people are feeling the full force of the law."

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