Retailers have called for tougher police action on shoplifting after it was revealed that only 431 fines were issued for the offence in a year.
Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that, in the year to March 2014, 19,419 fines were handed out for retail theft under £100.
This decreased year on year to 415 in the year to March 2023, and rose slightly to 431 in the year to March 2024.
Home Office figures show that 2,252 cautions were accepted for shoplifting in the year to March 2024.
In the 12 months to March 2015, there were 279,567 shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales, of which 12,916 resulted in a caution.
Shoplifting hit a 20-year high in the year to March 2024, with 443,995 offences recorded by police in England and Wales.
The most recent figures released for the outcomes of recorded crimes show that, of 436,171 cases of shoplifting, 71,741 led to a criminal charge in the year to March 2024.
The Times, which first highlighted the drop in cautions and fines, reported that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to end the “shameful neglect” by police of shoplifting, and to remove a rule where thefts under £200 are treated as less serious crimes.
“We will remove the £200 threshold, bring in stronger powers to ban repeat offenders from town centres, make assaults on shop workers a specific criminal offence, and, through our neighbourhood policing guarantee, we will put thousands more police on to our streets to crack down on shop theft, anti-social behaviour and the other crimes that blight our communities and make people feel unsafe,” she told the newspaper.
In response to the news, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) called for retail crime to be made a top priority for police.
Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulatory affairs at the BRC, said: “Shoplifting poses a huge issue to businesses and communities across the country, and inadequate police action has given criminals a free rein to steal goods.
“Our latest crime survey showed losses to theft doubled in the last year to £1.8 billion, and retailers had to spend a further £1.2 billion on anti-crime measures.
“Not only has the number of thefts increased, but thieves are becoming bolder, more aggressive, and more frequently armed with weapons.
“We call on the police to get tough on retail crime and ensure tackling this issue is a high priority in local policing plans.”
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said action is needed to tackle repeat offenders.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Retailers are extremely frustrated with the lack of action taken to stop repeat offenders who target their shops on a regular basis without fear of reproach.
“While it is not realistic or sensible to expect every thief to be put in prison, it is essential that we find ways to stop reoffending and get to the root cause of that offenders’ motivations.
“At a minimum, this requires thefts, when reported, to be investigated by the police so that the right course of action and intervention to stop reoffending can be taken.
“We cannot send a message to prolific offenders that they are not on the police’s radar, because what starts as theft quickly develops into abuse, violence and other serious crime.”
Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for retail crime, told the Times that, under a crackdown introduced by the previous government last year, officers have committed to attend the scene of every retail crime where violence is used, where a suspect has been caught by security staff, or where only the police can secure relevant evidence.