Shop owner exposes thieves with CCTV footage

The company are asking people to come forward with any information which might help identify the thieves

A shop has decided to start posting CCTV footage on social media of people who shoplift in their store to deter people from stealing.

Touts, in Cleeve, North Somerset, took to Facebook to make the announcement after feeling they were left without "any other choice".

They said staff had been dealing with "huge levels of theft and aggression" and felt unsafe at work.

They are now urging people to help them identify the individuals in the CCTV.

The company explained why they felt the "need to make a stand" in a Facebook post: "Our team are continually being threatened, intimidated and ultimately feel unsafe in a workplace that we try so hard to create a positive environment for.

Company CEO said they are doing everything they can to ensure the thieves are prosecuted

The company added they have now employed security staff across their other Bristol stores, in Nailsea and Langford.

CEO John Tout said: "A lot of our team members, even some of the younger ones and the women, they've been threatened. They've been told that when leave the store at night they're gonna be harmed.

"My pregnant wife has been threatened and to be honest, it's reached a level which I don't think any society should ever get to," he added.

"People shouldn't feel like they allowed to go round and do these sorts of things."

John Tout has now hired security across all stores to protect his staff and property

In a statement, Avon and Somerset police said: "Shop staff should be able to feel safe in their workplace and we don't underestimate the impact of these types of crime.

"Our neighbourhood teams are committed to working with individual businesses and business groups to support them and have successfully used anti-social behaviour legislation to ban persistent thieves from certain areas.

"We encourage shop workers to report crime and aim to respond to incidents of shoplifting proportionately, prioritising those in which threats are made, acts of violence are reported or a suspect has been detained."

They added that officers were having to prioritise cases based on the level of ongoing threat, dealing with an average of 245 calls per day over the last five days in North Somerset alone.

Mr Tout said: "We're thinking if we give them the best CCTV in the country, which I think we've got, along with helping identifying who these people are, hopefully their job will be easier to make sure these people are brought to justice."