Shoplifters should face power of legislation, says retail chief as store staff undergo 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse a day

Retailers have urged the police and courts to ensure shoplifters and those who abuse staff feel the full force of tougher laws.

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said the ‘job is far from done’ when it comes to tackling a crime epidemic on the High Street.

Dickinson said officials must ensure that new laws, which came into force last week, result in ‘visible policing and consistent enforcement’.

She said crime has ‘become an all too common part of the daily lives’ of those working in stores and ‘fear has become part of the job’.

Shop workers suffer 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse a day – including 118 incidents of physical violence, BRC figures show.

The industry believes shoplifting levels are much higher than records show due to police responses, or some retailers not even contacting the police as they think little will be done.

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said the ‘job is far from done’ when it comes to tackling a crime epidemic on the High Street

Official figures say annual shoplifting offences passed 500,000 for the first time last year in England and Wales.

Dickinson described the legislation as ‘a significant step forward’. The new police and crime bill has removed a £200 threshold for ‘low level’ theft, a move hoped to encourage police to take incidents of

shoplifting more seriously. And the law has made assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence, which will mean tougher sentences.

Dickinson told the Daily Mail: ‘No one should go to work fearing for their safety, yet for many retail colleagues, that fear has become a part of the job.’

The new rules send ‘a clear message that abuse and violence will no longer be tolerated as part of the job’, she wrote.

But she added: ‘The test of this Act will [be] in whether our colleagues feel safer in the months ahead.

‘Without visible policing and consistent enforcement, the reality on the shop floor will not change – regardless of what the law says.’