Cornwall shopkeeper calls for more to be done to prevent high street crime
Recent ONS statistics show a rise in shoplifting crime by 46% across Devon and Cornwall
A shop owner who has made over 50 citizen arrests as a result of shoplifting says more should be done to police crimes on the high street.
The most recent ONS crime statistics show shoplifting has increased by 46% across Devon and Cornwall in the 12 months to September 2024, double the national increase. There has been a rise in the UK of 23% for the same period.
Martin Gaunt, owner of Happy Pirhana in Truro, said:
"If you look at the bigger picture, what happens is that then brings drug dealers into town. People steal from us, turn that into cash and every time things are escalating.
"We can prevent much more serious crime"
"Often they'll say they haven't got the resources or they haven't got the time, but in my experience it's more a matter that they haven't got the will.
"What we're trying to do now is we're trying to change the perception to realise what is considered 'petty crime', if we can stop those we can prevent much more serious crime."
Martin has previously taken matters into his own hands to prevent shoplifters from committing crimes by making citizens arrests and has put in CCTV cameras.
A citizen's arrest in the UK is when a person who is not a police officer detains someone suspected of a crime. It's also known as an arrest without a warrant.
Martin added: "It all leads to this misconception that it is OK to steal.
"What I really need help with is the huge rise in antisocial behaviour and street crime."
Jayne Kirkham, MP for Truro and Falmouth, said: "This has been an issue for a long time now and it's not good enough.
"We've got to the point that people are stealing things almost as a matter of course, and the police haven't had the resource to turn out. I've spoken to the PCC locally and she's aware of the problem, she says she's going to switch resources. I do hope that happens.
"It's got to change"
"Nationally this government is really pushing that this changes because we can't have this on a daily basis, our shop workers and our retail workers being put under stress like this and being injured and being hurt."
Devon and Cornwall Police say shoplifting is a priority for both the force and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. A spokesperson said: "We are aware this is a prominent issue in our communities, so our Neighbourhood Teams and officers are out in hotspot areas conducting high visibility patrols, building relationships and engaging with business communities, working with partners to give crime prevention advice to stores and identifying prolific offenders in an effort to build public confidence and deter shoplifting.
"We are working in partnership with businesses, private security, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) to focus resources into a designated location to reduce offending.
"The Force has been running a trial in Plymouth as part of pilot project. Working in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the project focuses on dealing with offenders quickly to stop them causing disruption in our communities. We are currently in the process of rolling this project out Forcewide.
"The project entails a review of current processes to ensure our response to gathering evidence is much more efficient, working collaboratively with different departments to understand who is causing the most risk/harm to our retailers. Officers have been building relationships with stores across Plymouth, visiting shops and explaining the process and actively encouraging them to produce the evidence required to deal with the offenders. Once those individuals are identified, we can work with retailers to understand the patterns of behaviour, so effective problem solving can take place.
"As the pilot has progressed with very positive outcomes, we have identified areas of improvement as we roll the project out Forcewide. This includes dealing with our prolific and repeat offenders effectively, using Out of Court Resolutions - with the introduction of online cognitive behavioural therapy training for first time offenders, and the use of our deferred caution and charge schemes which allow dedicated caseworkers to work with individuals to help stop reoffending by providing support.
"To help improve our success rate at court for Criminal Behavioural Orders (CBO’s), we are working with the CPS to understand what information is needed for these to be granted. We know that CBO’s help to reduce offending and generally carry much higher sentences at court.
"There have been many positive outcomes already, including a 14-week prison sentence for a verbal attack on a shopkeeper by a persistent shoplifter and an additional 10-week prison sentence for the shoplifting.
"We hope that the project is reflective of our commitment to tackle shoplifting, showing offenders that it will not be tolerated, and working with CPS and courts to ensure the true impact of shop theft is communicated to aid with sentencing.
"The Force has recently entered into a new partnership with Auror, a software development company who provide a comprehensive crime intelligence & loss prevention platform for retailers.
"We are the first force in the country to go live with both 'Direct to Police reporting' through Auror and a Forcewide roll out of the platform to our officers and staff.
"This move will provide us with critical intelligence to enable our teams to better fulfil their policing priorities and help us identify the offenders who cause the most harm.
"We have already seen some incredible results from our use of Auror over the past few months. Our charge and offender outcome rates for crimes reported through the platform are between 6% and 7% higher than crimes reported through more traditional means. Crime reports are provided to police an average of 31 times quicker, which means we are able to accelerate investigations.
"Not only has evidence and intelligence from the Auror platform assisted officers in achieving more positive outcomes for our victims, it also directly contributes towards ancillary order applications such as CBO’s.
"We can’t tackle this issue on our own. We know business crime is vastly underreported. The only way the police can tackle this crime is if it is reported – even if the offenders can’t be caught, it helps to target patrols."
You can report crime online, anonymously via CrimeStoppers or via the 101 non-emergency service.