Shop thieves are wising up to penalties.

(From Off Licence News)

With all the current fuss concerning under-age purchases and antisocial behaviour, shoplifting is fast becoming aAforgotten crime. Noises coming from government that store theft should no longer be dealt with by anything more than an AGBP80 fixed penalty notice - except in the most extreme cases - have left some in the trade feeling that offenders have essentially been given the green light to carry onAthieving.

But evidence suggests that the introduction of fixed -penalty notices for first -time offenders has done little to deter would-be shoplifters.

Figures from the British Retail Consortium for 2006 showed the recorded number of customer thefts per 100 retail outlets had risen by 3 per cent to just short of 4,000, But the Home Office says police figures for England and Wales for 2006/7 recorded 294,304 instances of shoplifting - "a number that had no statistical difference from the previous year".

The BRC figures show that the total cost of customer theft was up 9 per cent to AGBP205 million - and that's just the incidents that are detected . The average value of goods stolen in any one incident was AGBP156, up from AGBP149 in 2005.

Fixing a punishment The BRC says that many (perhaps the majority) are drug users stealing to fund their habit, and the Home Office says around three-quarters of crack and heroin users admit to committing crimes to buy drugs.

Incidents of physical violence against shop staff were 50 per cent ahead of 2005 levels, according to the BRC figures, while threats of violence more than doubled.