Shoplifting crimes have soared to the highest levels in a decade in Southwark, Metropolitan Police data shows.
The number of shoplifting crimes recorded in Southwark by the Met Police rose by almost 240% from May to September.
Shop thefts have risen in every single London borough over the past two years and the latest data from the Met Police shows that Southwark is now the worst affected.
There were 115 shoplifting crimes were recorded in May in Southwark by the Met Police, spiking to 520 instances in September.
In the decade prior to 2024, the number of shop thefts had never surpassed 200 in Southwark and had hit a high of only 189 in August of last year.
Research from the British Retail Consortium suggests that only 3% of shop thefts nationally are reported to the police.
Mitalee Shah, 32, who is the owner of a vape and confectionary shop on Borough High Street in Southwark, said that shoplifting became “worse and worse” this year.
The shop owner said: “Everyone is getting sick of it, it should not be happening.
“We do not know if they are going to come in with a knife, or if they are going to hit you.
“Shoplifters now think they can get away with everything because the law is not punishing them.”
Two years ago, a shoplifter came into her shop, smashed her laptop and took money from the cash register, but she says that since then the situation has only deteriorated.
Shah has been shoplifted multiple times in the past few weeks and now has a panic alarm, but said she has no confidence in the police’s ability to stop crimes occurring or bring thieves to justice.
She added: “The worst thing is that the police are doing nothing about it.
“As a business owner you should have faith in the law that the police will do something, rather than having to pay for extra security and CCTV.
“If the police do not want to do anything than people are going to keep on doing what they want.”
In space of five months, Southwark has gone from the borough eighth least affected by shoplifting to the most affected borough.
Rachel Bentley, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Bermondsey and Old Southwark and vice chair of Southwark Council’s Education and Local Economy Scrutiny Commission, said that shoplifting is now common place and a regular concern in her ward.
Bentley said: “There is a real spike going on. Shop owners are feeling vulnerable.
“If someone steals £200 pounds over a week, or £500 over a week, that builds up. This should not just be the cost of doing business.
“The really unquantifiable but deeply harmful part is the impact that this will be having on staff wellbeing and moral. They should be able to go to work and feel safe.”
Bentley noted that Co-ops have been a particular target for shoplifters.
In a panel meeting of North Bermondsey’s Safer Neighbourhood Team on 10 September, police officers also reported that Co-ops are suffering a lot of shoplifting incidents and pointed to issues with their corporation’s policy not to detain offenders.
A Co-op spokesperson said: “We know as the leading retail voice campaigning to fight retail crime that shoplifting can often be a flashpoint for violence and abuse against shopworkers.
“The safety of our frontline colleagues is of paramount importance to us and we have invested in more than £200m over recent years in a range of preventative measures where local issues occur.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Bentley, who is also deputy leader of the opposition in Southwark, argued that more funding for public services, as well as more police action, was part of the solution to addressing shoplifting in the area.
She added: “I do think that crime is not being taken seriously.
“We need more bobbies on the beat, and we need more community policing. We need to really listen to the community as to where the answers might be.”
Southwark sits alongside every single other London borough in having recorded a steep rise in shoplifting crimes in the past two years.
Cases in the capital have more than doubled since October 2022, when the total across the boroughs went from 3,472 to 7,997 in September 2024, peaking at 8,429 in August.
Alongside Southwark, the boroughs of Camden, Enfield, Harrow and Croydon saw the largest surges in shop thefts over the past 24 months.
Westminster had been the focal point of shoplifting activity in the capital, with more than 10,000 shop thefts recorded over the past two years, the most of any borough.
The central London borough experienced the most shoplifting instances for 23 of the past 24 months, only surpassed by Southwark’s surge in September.
Professor Emmeline Taylor of City, University of London, a leading expert on shoplifting and member of the National Retail Crime Steering Group, said that while elevated levels of police recorded incidents could suggest greater police activity on the topic, there have are a multitude of factors fuelling shop thefts in the capital.
Research shows that drug-affected offenders are “one of the biggest cohort” of shoplifters, which Taylor argues is down to austerity-fuelled cuts to addiction and mental health services.
A typical drug-affected offender probably needs to steal around £500 worth of goods every day, in order to make enough money to buy drugs from selling their products at a third or half of retail price.
According to the professor, the cost-of-living crisis has also ‘driven a willingness to buy stolen goods’, which has incentivised criminal gangs to turn their hand to the retail sector.
Taylor said: “It is almost becoming more socially acceptable to steal.
“We are seeing increasingly very brazen thefts, where the perpetrator is almost shocked when someone tries to stop them.
“The big brand household names now have policies of not intervening, and let the shoplifters do what they want do, because safety is worth more than anything.
“Offenders have become wise to that, they know if they go into a school with a bit of aggression, the security guards and staff will stand back.”
The police do not have the resources to address crime across the country, including shoplifting, Taylor added.
She said: “I have huge sympathy for the police, they have an impossible task currently.
“Retailers say that the less than 3% of shoplifting cases they report are the most violent, most prolific, most high value theft and yet the police still do not show up and over half of those very minimal reports are closed with no suspects identified.
“It is soul destroying. For individual business owners we are hearing more and more about stores permanently closing because they do not feel that they can operate profitably or safely.
“Even some of the big chains are suggesting that they might need to close in particularly high-risk locations.”
The shoplifting expert also advises business how to become “Fortress stores“.
She recommends that stores analyse the specific data on thefts in their shops and use that information to change the merchandise they sell, how they protect certain items on shelves, as well as their store’s opening hours.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement on this data: “We have renewed our commitment to tackling shoplifting and retail crime in collaboration with the wider business community. In partnership with retailers, we have also recently launched a new targeted operation across the capital to crackdown on this crime and support them and their staff.
“Our call handlers will assess each and every report and make an assessment based on available lines of enquiry.
“We continue to use data and technology, such as phone tracking and surveillance techniques, to target offenders and investigate crimes that impact those living and working in London.”
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