Rony Sid at Budgens in Upper Street

SHOPKEEPERS have warned they are on the front line of a shoplifting epidemic after thefts soared in recent months.

Across Islington, supermarkets are reporting the same thing: stealing has ramped up in the past year and thieves are becoming more brazen. They claim police either come too late to stop them – or don’t come at all.

Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South, described the situation as “really bad” and said she had spoken to shopkeepers on Caledonian Road and Upper Street who all complained about problems with theft.

“The £200 limit is part of the problem, but lack of police response is another,” she added, referencing a change in the law in 2014 which saw any theft below £200 downgraded to a fine in the post rather than a prosecution.

She said her local Co-op in Islington had called the situation so serious it was affecting the “very viability” of the store – a sentiment echoed elsewhere this week.

Earlier this month the government announced plans to make attacking shopworkers a stand-alone crime, while newly released Office for National Statistics figures showed shoplifting was at its highest since police records began in 2003. More than 430,000 offences were recorded nationally last year – up by more than a third than the previous 12 months to December 2022.

Shopkeepers were in agreement over what is being stolen. Expensive steaks are favoured but any kind of high-end meat will go, along with alcohol, cheese, and fancy boxes of chocolates. Once stolen, the items are then hawked at the nearest street corner.

McDonald’s manager Spiros Constanipouls

In February, Spiros Constanipouls, the Seven Sisters Road McDonald’s manager, told the Tribune a makeshift stall operated around the back of the store every Sunday morning, just metres from the local Safer Neighbourhood team’s front door.

“There’s a lot of people who steal from Iceland, Morrisons and they come here,” he said.

“They steal steaks – proper steaks for 20 quid – and they sell them here for about £2 or £3 quid. Everyone comes to buy them! Orange juice, everything. If you go outside the Halifax bank, it looks like a little market stall.”

On Tuesday, at a St Mary’s ward panel meeting in St Mary’s Church in Upper Street, one independent trader described how the situation was so bad it had forced him to reconsider opening up more shops and focus on his online business.

The man, who didn’t want to be named for fear of damaging his shop’s reputation, said he was losing hundreds of pounds a week, and said the only option available to him was to urge them to steal from supermarkets with larger profit margins.

“Stealing is not considered a serious crime – people aren’t scared of the law any more,” he warned.

“It will kill the high street. Already it is being squeezed of independent producers and shops. Small theft has a huge impact. There needs to be a recalibration of policing to get people to respond more to it.”
Rony Sid, at Budgens in Upper Street, said theft was becoming unmanageable at a local level and needed action from “people at the top”.

Mr Sid, who has been assaulted three times in the past year, described how, if people are spotted stealing, they can become aggressive.

MP Emily Thornberry

“They take two of the bottles, they try to hit us with them or they just break them and they walk away,” he said. “I feel nervous about coming to work sometimes.”

Despite that, he felt empathy for those stealing, and questioned why, in a rich country like the UK, so many were desperate enough to steal.

“The government needs to see why we have these people on the street and what they can do to help them, because at the end of the day, they’re human as well,” he said.

From this month, policing minister Chris Philp has pledged to give every police force extra funding for anti-social behaviour hotspot patrols, which, he said, “I would generally expect to include town centre retail areas”.

He called on police forces to follow up any shoplifting where there is CCTV evidence.

Two months ago, a major retailer in Angel took on three security guards around the clock due to shoplifting.

A police spokesperson said: “Our New Met for London Plan is involving Londoners to give them a say in how their areas are policed. As part of this work we are collaborating with business and retail leads right across London to identify what matters to them, including the safety of shop-based workers and shoplifting.

“While it is not realistic for the Met to respond to every case of shoplifting in London due to demand, where a crime is being committed, a suspect is on the scene, and the situation has or is likely to become heated or violent, our call handlers will assess this and seek to despatch officers where appropriate.”

He said they were working in partnership with the Angel Business Improvement District to “tackle shoplifting” and had “enhanced” both the St Mary’s and Caledonian wards with additional officers.