Officers made 19 arrests on suspicion of shoplifting last week

Our officers made 19 arrests in relation to shoplifting last week and 12 people have subsequently been charged with theft offences and other related matters. 

Our specialist Business Crime Team will work with officers locally to apply to the courts for criminal behaviour orders against two of them and for the variation of conditions of a CBO previously imposed on a third.

Three people arrested also tested positive for Class A drugs under our drug test on arrest scheme, which sees adults we arrest for acquisitive crimes, such as shop theft, required to take a saliva test for cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin.

A positive test leads to an automatic referral to a specialist drug treatment programme with one of the three drug treatment services we work with in Essex.

Four people were arrested in the Southend district between Monday 27 November and Sunday 3 December for shop theft. Three were arrested in each of the Basildon and Chelmsford districts, two in Braintree and one in each of Castle Point, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Rochford, Tendring and Thurrock districts.

“The specialist officers on our team review every shoplifting arrest our colleagues make locally.
“We want to help to protect retail staff, and customers, from repeated abuse and stores from repeat thefts by diverting people from their offending behaviour.
“So, where we believe a criminal behaviour order would be justified, we work with our local colleagues to apply for them at court.
“Conditions can be imposed which ban offenders for lengthy periods of time from stores they have been targeting. And, if the offender has a history of drug or alcohol abuse, CBOs can include conditions such as the requirement to attend a treatment programme.”
Sergeant Christian Denning, of our Business Crime Team

Two people were issued with conditional cautions, three cases are still being investigated and no further action will be taken in two other cases.

• Visit our Business Crime Team pages for more information about the team's work

 

If a person admits an offence and agrees to abide by certain conditions, they can accept a conditional caution in return for not being prosecuted for that offence.

A conditional caution is only offered for offences where a court would be unlikely to impose a significant community sentence or a period of imprisonment if the person were to be prosecuted.

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