RETAIL staff face a devastating High Street crime wave as 670 shoplifting offences go unsolved every day.
Disturbing new analysis of Home Office stats show that in the year to March 2024, 245,000 theft cases were closed without a suspect being identified.
The figure is a 38 per cent rise on the 178,432 offences that went unsolved in the same period five years ago.
Among the cases of stolen goods, more than half were closed because cops couldn’t locate a suspect – up 49 per cent on five years ago.
Meanwhile, only around one in six incidents have led to a yob being charged or summonsed, down from one in five in 2019.
Martin Gaunt, a shop owner in Truro, Cornwall, claims he has had to make 50 citizens’ arrests in the past two years because he doesn’t receive “proper” police support.
In his three shops across town, covered by 12 CCTV cameras, he confronts criminals and tells them he has a right to detain them until the local force arrives.
Today the Lib Dems claimed that shop assistants on the frontline are having to deal with festive thieves who act with impunity.
The party has called for Sir Keir Starmer to accelerate a return to community policing, where local bobbies on the beat keep neighbourhoods and their shop workers safe.
Lib Dem Home Affairs Spokesperson, Lisa Smart, said: “The new government needs to get a grip on this shoplifting epidemic and hard-working shop staff on the frontline need to be reassured that they will not continue to be abandoned.
“That must start with ministers making sure that officers will actually have the time and resources to focus on their local neighbourhoods and keep shop workers safe.
“Until that happens our communities won’t see the proper neighbourhood policing that they deserve.”
