Don’t be tempted to steal, warns business crime officer

Our Business Crime Team are asking hard-pressed shoppers to reconsider if they are thinking of stealing.

Officers arrested 111 people on suspicion of shop theft* or for assaulting retailers in Essex during October 2024 and 84 of them were charged with a total of 283 counts of shoplifting. Seven were also charged with assaulting retail workers.

Our officers will be increasing patrols in many areas in the run-up to Black Friday and then Christmas as shoppers flock to stores in the hope of grabbing a bargain.

Sergeant Christian Denning, of our specialist Business Crime Team, says: 

“We understand there’s often huge pressure on budgets at this time of year but I want to remind people who are tempted to resort to stealing to think again. Is it worth the risk of a criminal record?” 

Our business crime officers will continue to work with retailers to deter shoplifters and keep their staff and premises safe and secure during the busiest period of the retailing year.

“Good quality CCTV images and witness statements from staff help our officers to present solid cases at court, which can result in jail time and criminal behaviour orders being imposed on the worst offenders.
“Courts can impose conditions through a criminal behaviour order, banning them from whole store chains or individual shops for long periods of time or requiring them to attend drug or alcohol treatment sessions to remove the cause of their offending behaviour.
“But we can only apply for CBOs if we have enough evidence to prosecute in the first place. Officers know their local area and their repeat offenders, so they often identify suspects from a shop’s CCTV footage.
“However, they can only do this if images are good quality. That means stores installing cameras that record high resolution images of 1080p or better.”

A total of 111 people were arrested for shop theft* in Essex between 1 & 31 October 2024: 21 across the Colchester district; 19 in each of the Harlow and Southend districts; 18 across Chelmsford; 17 in Thurrock; 11 in the Basildon district; three in Brentwood; two in Tendring; and one in the Braintree district.

Between 1 January and 31 October 2024, 1,148 people have been arrested for shop thefts across our county.

As well as the charges against 84 of those we arrested, investigations are ongoing in 11 other cases. Two people were cautioned, seven people received community resolutions and no further action will be taken against seven others.

* Arrests for shop theft. This relates to the number of arrests our officers have made. A person may have been arrested more than once for theft from a shop during the time period. And they may have been arrested for more than one offence.