Middle-Class Thieves Add To Shoplifting Rise

The number of middle-class thieves with a taste for quality is on the rise in the UK according to one retail security company, with shoplifting at an all-time high.

Goods worth a staggering £4.88bn were pinched in the last 12 months - up 20% from last year, a report from Checkpoint Systems shows.

Designer clothing, football shirts, lingerie and leather items are high up on thieves' shopping lists, and shoplifted items now account for 1.85% of total 'sales'.

In speciality food and convenience stores, cooked and fresh meat, cheese, seafood and fish and alcohol all featuring strongly among stolen products, which represent 1.80% of sales.

The shocking figures have seen the UK keep its position at the top of a retail crime league, having more light-fingered customers than any other European country.

"The UK's retail industry has seen its largest ever increase in shoplifting over the last 12 months, and it comes at a time when the industry can least afford it," said Neil Matthews of security and merchandising specialists Checkpoint Systems NCE.

"But what is perhaps as surprising as the figures themselves is that we are not simply looking at your traditional shoplifters here.

"We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell-on than before.

"This is epitomised in the recent uprising of the middle-class shoplifter, someone who has turned to theft to sustain their standard of living, and this is driving theft of items such as cosmetics, perfumes and face creams, alcohol, fresh meat, mobile phones, computer games and DVDs as well as small electrical goods like cameras, iPods and personal care gadgets."

The annual study conducted for Checkpoint Systems by The Centre for Retail Research, shows an additional £750 million worth of items was stolen than in the same period in 2008.

This year's report - which surveyed over 1,000 retailers worldwide - also revealed that theft from employees has also risen during the recession.

Over the last 12 months, UK retailers have invested £926 million in an effort to combat shoplifting, but nearly a third of stolen merchandise is unprotected, Checkpoint Systems said.