Matthew Crawford at After Noah

SHOPWORKERS in Angel have reported being violently assaulted and feeling terrified at work amid a surge in shoplifting.

Matthew Crawford, who has run Upper Street homeware and toy shop After Noah for 35 years, told the Tribune: “We don’t get less than five thieves in here per day, and often more than that. It would be difficult to exaggerate how bad it is. It’s like the Wild West out there.

“The term ‘shoplifting’ trivialises what’s going on – it conjures up images of kids nicking sweets. But what we’ve got are violent, aggressive, drug-addled or criminal gangs that are prepared to at the very least to intimidate and at worst punch and hit.

“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been assaulted. I’ve been bitten, I’ve been stabbed with syringes. I’ve had to have a course of heptatitis B jabs. It’s just horrible.”

Last year Mr Crawford’s business lost £80,000 of stock to thieves. He has doubled the number of security cameras and had to spend on other measures.

Most offenders are familiar faces, he said, adding: “I know them all by name, I know many of their addresses, we know their eBay shops, we know where they’re exchanging goods.

“But the problem is that all of the criminals are well versed in the fact that nothing is going to happen to them.”

The Angel Islington Business Improvement District (BID) represents 550 businesses in the area and is currently running a campaign to raise awareness of the human impact of shoplifting.

Chief executive Ben Stephenson said: “You’ve got the same people coming back again and again. For many people it begins to feel like harassment.

“So much shoplifting is accompanied by abuse, sometimes violence, and this is driving people from the sector in a way that it hasn’t before.”

In Angel there are around 20 individuals perpetrating 80 per cent of the crimes, he added.

Police join the BID’s patrol

“The stuff we’ve seen on CCTV is extraordinary,” he said.

“People will walk into a shop, take an entire rack of clothes and just walk out. It happens all the time, every single day.

“We end up with this situation where the police say they’re not able to resource as much as they’d like because businesses aren’t necessarily reporting it. It’s a bit of a catch 22.”

Alvish Aamir, who works at an independent womenswear store in Camden Passage which has been robbed of jumpers and jewellery, said: “When it happens you can’t process it, and then you feel incompetent. It felt like I didn’t protect the store enough.

“You feel very threatened and you feel unsafe, and then afterwards for a good period of time you are paranoid. Especially as a girl, it’s super scary.”

Jasmine Smith, who works in a kitchenware shop, similarly told the Tribune: “When my male colleague was on shift it never happened to him, because thieves are afraid of him. As soon as the shop attendant is a young female it’s much easier.

“It feels awful when it happens – but after about 10 times I was like, ‘well I can’t stress any more about this’. It’s too often.”

She added: “It can be anyone who walks in. Some people look like drug addicts but the next time it was someone wearing Prada glasses.”

Bryan Jones and Chris Saint, who run an optician and glasses store in Angel, said they had lost £3,000-worth of stock to thieves in the past eight months.

Islington BID has its own private crime patrol service and recently held a retail crime “round table” with senior police, academic experts and retailers to explore why shoplifting is getting worse.

The Home Office has recently announced measures to address shoplifting, including plans for new offences for assaults on shop workers.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “We know the impact that retail crime has on staff and businesses. Shop staff should report crime to police.

“We have renewed our commitment to tackling shoplifting and retail crime in collaboration with the wider business community.

“In partnership with retailers, we have also recently launched a new targeted operation across the capital to crackdown on this crime.

“We continue to use data and technology, such as phone tracking and surveillance techniques, to target offenders and investigate crimes that impact those living and working in London.”