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More serial or violent shoplifters are facing prison as the UK government seeks to reduce spiraling levels of theft and violence against retail workers.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday he would make assaulting a retail worker a separate criminal offense in England and Wales, mirroring an existing law in Scotland.
Violators could be sent to prison for up to six months, given an unlimited fine and banned from returning to the store where they committed the crime under the toughest punishments set by the government.
Offenders could also be forced to wear tags to track their movements, while more real-time facial recognition technologies would be employed to catch suspects.
Sunak’s announcement comes after an intense campaign by retailers across the UK to get more support in the fight against rising retail crime. Some companies have also warned that crime is squeezing profits.
According to the British Retail Consortium, which represents more than 200 large businesses in the UK, in the 12 months to the end of August 2023, violence and abuse against employees rose to 1,300 incidents a day compared to almost 870 a day at the same time period of the previous year. The UK.
Over the same period the cost of theft has doubled to £1.8 billion, with over 45,000 incidents per day.
Sunak said he was “sending a message to those criminals – be they organized crime groups, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves – who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shop assistants, stop.”
Retailers welcomed the announcement. BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “The impact of violence in retail has steadily worsened. . . The victims are ordinary, hard-working people: teenagers starting their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents doing childcare.”
Paul Gerrard, director of campaigns and public relations at the Co-op, said the retailer would double its work with the police force “but these measures will undoubtedly, once implemented, keep our employees safer”.
In October, the police and government launched measures to tackle rising retail crime, known as the Retail Crime Action Plan.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Labor was “calling for tougher action. . . for more than 10 years,” adding that the government’s announcement was “just a pale imitation of Labour’s plans.”
Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher in London