Shoplifting at charity shop becoming 'larger problem'

Acorn has introduced a zero-tolerance policy after seeing a rise in the amount of goods being stolen

A rise in shoplifting is becoming an "increasing larger problem", a Jersey charity shop has said.

Acorn said it had introduced a zero-tolerance policy towards shoplifters after seeing a rise in the amount of goods being stolen.

The police said it had about 150 reports of people stealing from shops in 2023, and that it was working with businesses to reduce the figure.

Caroline Kelly, from Acorn, said thefts had increased in the last few months.

She said: "People are just putting on a coat and walking out the doors, they may buy a rucksack from us - they fill that with items and then only go to the till to pay for the bag itself.

"They're swapping tickets on items to have them at reduced prices, it is a growing problem for us.

"We try and keep our prices so low, our prices are incredibly low and incredibly reasonable and we'd like to keep them that way."

The British Retail Consortium found the cost of theft in the UK had doubled to £1.8bn in 2022 and 2023, with more than 45,000 incidents a day.

Acorn said it had started zip-tying items and bought ink tags "at a cost" to try and prevent thefts.

Acorn said it had started zip tying its items and have bought ink tags "at a cost" to try and prevent thefts

Ms Kelly said the charity's zero-tolerance policy would see it call the police when a shoplifter is stealing, swapping prices or items - and those caught would see an instant ban from the shop.

She said: "I think it has got worse, we our now far more aware of shoplifting going on and we have actually set up a shoplifting committee.

"The community police have come and given us great advice and we are going to be running a shoplifting campaign later on in the year which we really would like all our customers to support us on."

'A daily basis'

Jersey Police said it saw 115 cases of shoplifting in 2021, which went up to 137 in 2022, and rose again to 152 in 2023.

David Turnbull, from community policing, said it saw shoplifting across "a variety" of shops, but the island was "very fortunate" not to see as high an increase compared to the UK.

He said: "Shoplifting is one of those offences that we deal with on a daily basis, it's probably what you may call a bread and butter crime, but it does affect a lot of people across the island.

"I have no doubt we don't get reports from every retailer... they don't want to waste the police's time and they deal with it themselves, but we would always encourage our retailers to make a report to the police and we will look at every report on it."

Mr Turnbull said there were a "variety of different reasons" for people to steal.

He said: "It's something we've looked at to try and understand, I have no doubt that the cost of living pressures on many people will be a contributory factor to this.

"We do have reports of some food items being taken, but on the flip side of that we also get reports of alcohol being taken so there may be people that depend on alcohol that maybe don't have the funds."