The claws of organised crime are driving hundreds of millions of pounds of annual shoplifting in Scotland retailers claim.
A lack of effective deterrents and increasingly brazen tactics by thieves has meant thousands of shop staff face hugely escalating levels of threats and violence.
Stephanie Karté, National Operations Manager of the Stirling-based Retailers Against Crime group, claims the latest official figure of £170 million a year lost by stores to shoplifting is a gross under-estimate of the real damage.
The body, which has been dismayed to see retail crime explode year after year, keeps a database of “active offenders” that target shops in Scotland, now thought to number several thousand.
Their members now report that the waves of new faces adding to career thieves who show contempt for the police and laws, is overwhelming.
Karté said every single days brings reports of violent incidents in Scottish shops.
And she says more police officers, better judicial responses and an orchestrated education programme for schools must be implemented to start to turn the tide.
She said: “Retailers Against Crime have been here since 1997 and there was an identified problem then – but the numbers now are jaw-dropping .
“The reality is that the figure of £170 million for shoplifting is masking the real figure, which is much higher, as much of the crime does not get reported.
“Our organisation can highlight the problems but we can’t get boots on the ground and get more officers to protect stores.
“Things need to change in the judicial system too, as there are no consequences, in many cases, for shoplifting and retail crime, and where there are no consequences the problems will perpetuate and get worse.”
The Daily Record told yesterday how the Scottish Retail Consortium believes £170 million was lost to theft in the past years, with massively increasing levels of violence and intimidation against shops staff.
Karté said organised crime, in several different forms, is resulting in gangs systematically moving around towns and cities, with kids often the ones who get caught in shops, only to immediately re-offend.
She said: “We are hearing so much from our members about under-16s stealing alcohol, just walking into shops and taking what they can get away with.
“This is being done on a scale that is extremely worrying and the sad fact is that for kids who are being dealt with under the social work system there will be no punishment and it often means they simply keep doing it.
“It’s the ones who direct them who are making money and you will, never see any of them in the shops.”
Retailers Against Crime have exposed how free bus travel has enabled gangs to move between places like Glasgow Edinburgh and Dundee to carry out orchestrated raids.
Karté says thousands of “active offenders” are on their database, with CCTV images and behaviour files circulated on their SentrySIS system.
Images and data can be accessed by member companies and patterns can be detected, which have revealed how organisations work.
Staff in individual stores bear the brunt of the harassment, threats and violence.
Karté said: “We have situations arise where determined thieves feel they can simply go into a shop and take what they like then leave again, before any police officer might have responded.
“The alternative for security staff or other workers is to challenge them and that raises the question of what price you might out on a life. They don’t know if a person might have a knife or what level of violence they might be prepared to go to. But they do know that some will be extremely violent.”
The presence of such a threat is damaging in itself.
Karté said: “There is a lot of stress that arises from that and also from the way staff are spoken to, which can be beyond belief.
“Some people believed they can say what they like to a shop worker and it seems we now live in an age where basic levels of respect have been eroded and don’t exist in some groups.”
One Scottish security worker told the Retailers Against Crime group that the job has become a war zone.
He said the existence of gangs of youngsters, controlled by organise crooks, is now so obvious that all major retailers are aware of them.
The worker said the same faces pop up again and again – with more joining their ranks.
He said: “I’m more worried than I’ve ever been in 20 years doing this job.
“Worried for other security guards in the city, and worried for the shop workers – they’re worried too, I can see it in their faces.
“There’s no deterrence, especially for young people – they know the chances are nothing is going to happen to them.
“I’m in court three or four times a month and can see that for myself.
“The police are great, but they can only act when it’s there in front of them, the rest of the justice system lets them down too.”
“The challenge facing authorities is enormous, with many young people dispatched by serious organised gangs, some of whom are based across Europe.
“They travel from cities to smaller towns and villages, using free bus passes and train services, often fleeing the scene with thousands of pounds worth of goods before police arrive.”
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter.