Retailer Ben Lawrence used to pay around £30,000 a year for security on the door of his BP Sholing forecourt – nowadays his policy is to “overstaff” the shop to help protect staff, customers and stock.
“We made the decision to remove the dedicated security and put that money back into staff wages,” he explains. “We feel this is a better use of the money, allowing us to have more staff on site. At Sholing, it’s important that we always have someone on the shopfloor keeping an eye on what’s going on. This helps us spot potential thefts early and deal with situations before they escalate.”
It sounds like a sensible idea and one that the Metropolitan Police recommends. In its advice to retailers, the Met says: “Shoplifters can always assess how easy it is to steal from a shop by how soon after they enter they are spoken to by a member of staff. It’s known as ‘the three-to-five second rule’.
“Greeting customers as they enter your premises can put off shoplifters because it sends out a message that you and your staff are paying attention. If a thief thinks they’ve been spotted they’re more likely to leave.”
Lawrence says his company’s relationship with the police is good, but that realistically, most of the groundwork has to be done by his staff. “It’s about managing our time, identifying repeat offenders and gathering the evidence needed to help the police take action. We’re only a small part of the bigger picture, but we do what we can to help them catch the people who repeatedly target our site.”
Serious consequences
Meanwhile, Joe Hockenhull, managing director at Hockenhull Garages, says disruptive behaviour by youths is an annoyance but can be more serious. “We had one instance where a pair of drunken girls reported to the police that our nightman had exposed himself to them. This was completely untrue but it resulted in the police coming to the forecourt and arresting him. Later, when they saw the CCTV, they released him, but this was after he had been wrongly detained for a few hours.
“Examples like this have left us with less confidence in the police. Generally they are too slow to react and not interested in crimes where our losses are below £100.”
Hockenhull would like to see more support from local authorities and stricter punishment for criminals. “Local businesses in the same community should work together more to share best practices and look to notify one another to anything that could combat the issues we’re all experiencing.”
He says some repeat offenders at his sites have been arrested, charged and imprisoned. “However, they are back out in a short time and we see local Facebook groups sharing incidents of them performing crimes again.”
Obviously, it’s the shopfloor staff that bear the brunt of the crime. Hockenhull says he has regular conversations with his teams about this and they have regular training including a robbery drill, which is done quarterly on-site.
“We do double-manning as much as we can budget for and we make sure the teams feel empowered to close the shop door if they are uneasy about anything.”
Morale can be seriously dented when incidents occur but Hockenhull is keen that his team is recognised when they have followed procedures and maintained their safety as well as that of the customers.”
It’s similar at Ben Lawrence’s sites: “Being a family business, we encourage everyone to take ownership and feel empowered to make decisions. We want our team to see the site as not just our business, but theirs too. That attitude makes a big difference, particularly when it comes to looking after the site, supporting each other and preventing crime.”
Repeat offenders
Prolific offenders are a major problem when it comes to shoplifting so it’s good to see certain police forces taking action to specifically try and tackle this problem.
Last summer, Sussex police and crime commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne, working alongside Sussex Police, East Sussex County Council, the Probation Service, Change Grow Live and the Co-op, launched Operation Stop which combined GPS tagging as a condition of Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) with tailored support to tackle the issues that often underpin persistent shop theft.
An independent evaluation of Operation STOP was published last month and identified significant reductions in offending among prolific shoplifters taking part in the initiative.
Findings indicate that tagged offenders experienced substantially fewer offences with some participants stopping offending altogether. Police, retailers and criminal justice partners also reported clear reductions in repeat offending and positive impacts for local businesses.
The success of the initial East Sussex pilot, which used 10 GPS tags, led to the scheme expanding across the whole of Sussex in May 2026. The project now has capacity for 30 tags across East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove.
Sixteen CBOs with GPS tagging conditions have been authorised to date. Six offenders are still wearing tags, with a further 12 cases awaiting court hearings.
Analysis undertaken as part of the independent evaluation found that:
- All eight tagged offenders included in the initial analysis reduced their offending, with five committing no further offences after being tagged. One prolific offender has now remained offence-free since October 2025.
- There were approximately 11-to-13 fewer offences committed per person after tagging, representing an overall reduction of around 58%.
- Participants who did reoffend consistently committed fewer offences after having a tag fitted.
- Based on average offending rates before and after tagging for the eight offenders, approximately 300 offences would be prevented in a 12-month period.
The tagging scheme could soon be extended to Croydon as executive mayor Jason Perry is examining how GPS ankle tags can be used to tackle prolific offenders who repeatedly target local shops. Perry has met with Sussex Police to see how the scheme is working there. He says: “GPS tagging could help us monitor persistent shoplifting offenders, enforce exclusion zones and prevent the same people returning time and again to cause more harm.”
