Business
Now shoplifters are attacking staff with HIV-infected NEEDLES: Iceland boss reveals three workers have virus – as Co-Op, John Lewis and Waitrose tell how police ‘inaction’ has caused crime epidemic with thieves using ‘medieval maces’ to openly loot shelves
Three Iceland staff are HIV positive after being attacked by shoplifters with hypodermic needles, the chain’s boss has told MailOnline.
Richard Walker, executive chairman of Iceland Foods, is the latest retail leader to speak out about the increase in violent attacks on staff across the UK high street.
He said: ‘Every single week I receive an average of 12 reports of ”serious incidents” where managers and other colleagues have been attacked in our stores, almost always by shoplifters.
‘Colleagues are being slapped, punched and threatened with a range of weapons including knives, hammers, firearms and hypodermic needles.
‘Three of our store colleagues are now HIV positive as a result of these needle attacks. Other assaults have resulted in injuries ranging from a broken jaw to a fractured skull.’
The idea of victims being infected with HIV after being attacked by people with infected needles has long been a dark urban myth, but Mr Walker’s comments show this has now become a reality.
Staff at other chains have been punched, bottled and stabbed by thieves – who store security experts say are increasingly operating in organised criminal gangs.
Co-op employees have also been threatened with syringes, while another was assaulted with a medieval mace, a senior executive told MailOnline.
John Lewis chair Sharon White recently described shoplifting in Britain as an ‘epidemic’. Today, MailOnline can reveal exclusive CCTV video taken inside the chain’s stores.
Richard Walker, executive chairman of Iceland Foods, is the latest retail executive to speak out about the increase in violent attacks on staff across the UK high street
As part of an investigation into the UK’s shoplifting ‘epidemic’, MailOnline has also obtained exclusive CCTV footage of shoplifters in John Lewis. In one video, a man wearing a black jumper crouches down and opens a black bin bag before stashing two Pure speakers inside
He walks off with them in his hand, before turning around again and exposing his face to the CCTV camera. In both cases the shoplifters were detained before being arrested by police
An Iceland security guard confronts a shoplifter inside a store in Ilford, London. None of the images in this article show people involved in needle attacks or any victims of them
MailOnline can also reveal new data that shows cases of shoplifting at Co-op stores have risen by 41 per cent in the first eight months of this year compared to the last.
Paul Gerrard, the chain’s campaigns and public affairs director, said the number of cases of violence being used against staff had also increased – by 25 per cent.
‘We are running at about a thousand incidents of shoplifting a day across our two and a half thousand stores,’ he told MailOnline.
Mr Walker and Mr Gerrard are the latest retail executives to warn of a dramatic increase in shoplifting across UK stores.
The British Retail Consortium said incidents of violence and abuse against staff have nearly doubled from more than 450 per day in 2019/2020 to more than 850 last year.
Today, MailOnline has published new CCTV footage of shoplifters in John Lewis.
In one video, a man wearing a black jumper crouches down and opens a black bin bag before stashing two Pure speakers inside.
He looks up to a higher shelf and appears to select the most expensive item he can find – a Pure radio worth £369.
He then grabs the price sticker for the radio and stashes it in his bin bag along with the other stolen goods and begins walking out.
In a second video, a man walks up to a pile of yellow tops and grabs them.
He walks off with them in his hand, before turning around again and exposing his face to the CCTV camera.
Finally, he leans over and stuffs them in his bag.
In both cases the shoplifters were detained by security staff before being arrested by police.
In the first video from John Lewis, the shoplifter can be seen looking up to a higher shelf and appears to select the most expensive item he can find – a Pure radio worth £369
In a second video, a man walks up to a pile of yellow tops and grabs them off the shelf
Data released by the Co-Op in July showed police are failing to attend more than two-thirds of retail crimes.
Mr Gerrard told MailOnline: ‘Four or five colleagues will be physically attacked every day.
‘We’ve seen syringes, knives and we even saw a medieval mace a couple of years ago.’
The chain has invested in undercover security guards who perform citizen’s arrests on thieves.
‘These are highly trained expert guards – often ex-police and ex forces – who work undercover in stores where there’s a particular problem,’ Mr Gerrard said.
‘They will intervene and make a citizen’s arrest and detain the individual.’
Mr Gerrard said the Co-op had invested heavily in store security but needed tougher enforcement to tackle the problem.
‘Some forces are really good at coming out and some are really bad – there’s no consistency at all,’ he said.
The John Lewis Partnership yesterday revealed it is facing a £12million jump in the cost of shoplifting as bosses at the retail giant blamed a surge in organised crime.
Dame Sharon said the recent spate in shoplifting was driven by ‘crime groups’ rather than thefts linked to the soaring cost of living.
Data released by the Co-Op in July showed police are failing to attend more than two-thirds of retail crimes. The chain has previously released footage of its staff grappling with shoplifters
The boss said she met with Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, earlier this week to discuss shoplifting.
She said: ‘Every retailer is seeing shoplifting that is much more organised crime than the opportunistic shoplifting you may have seen in the past – or linked to cost of living pressures.
‘It has almost become a job. It is shoplifting to order.
‘We have some situations where we have stores that are relatively approximate to each other, and a gang goes from store to store.’
She said too few incidents are being followed up by the police, adding: ‘It is organised, to order, and an issue, rife across retail.
‘We have raised the issue because the safety of our staff is incredibly important. We also feel this is an important issue from a societal point of view.
‘That is why we have been calling for change in legislation specifically to tackle abuse of shop workers. We are wanting to work more closely with the police.
‘To be frank, if we aren’t dealing with low level crime, that’s a huge issue more generally for society.’
The retailer called on the Government to change legislation in England and Wales to make it a criminal offence to abuse shopworkers, in line with current rules in Scotland.
Last month, the group’s supermarket arm Waitrose said it was offering free tea and coffee to police officers in an effort to boost their presence around stores.
The company said it mainly saw a rise in the cost of crime due to theft, as well as ‘related wastage’.
Ms White said: ‘Like other retailers, we have seen more activity linked to organised crime.
Team leader Charlene Corbin was bottled by a shoplifter at the Co-Op where she works
Pictured is the wound Ms Corbin sustained after being bottled by a thief at her store
‘We have raised the issue because the safety of our staff is incredibly important, as a business we also feel this is an important issue from a societal point of view.’
German discount supermarket chain Lidl said separately yesterday that it was stepping up investment in store security amid increasing rates of shoplifting, by ramping up CCTV coverage and rolling out more body-worn cameras in its outlets.
Ryan McDonnell, chief executive of Lidl’s British business, said it was a ‘social issue’ that the industry is working together to address.
He said: ‘There’s no doubt that it’s affecting the whole industry and we are not immune to it. The safety and security of our workers is a priority.
‘We are working with the British Retail Consortium with the rest of our competitors in the sector coming together to look at how we can tackle it.
‘We welcome the engagement from the Government and the police.’
Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said this week that he hopes to see ‘significant improvements’ in the way police find and prosecute offenders.
A shoplifter has a tug of war with a Co-op worker in Liverpool
He said that shoplifting was ‘clearly unacceptable’ and that the government would work with police forces to ‘drive down crime’ in the area.
The boss of Primark has also called for the shoplifting crisis to be taken ‘more seriously’ while the chairman of Asda has warned shoplifting has effectively been ‘decriminalised’.
And Tesco is offering every frontline worker at the supermarket a body camera following an increase in violent attacks on staff.
Asked whether there was recognition that shoplifting was a problem, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters in Westminster: ‘Shoplifting is clearly unacceptable and then the public would expect us to work with police forces to drive down crime.
‘It’s worth noting that crime overall has fallen significantly, whether it’s on neighbour crimes like burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, or indeed violent crime.
‘Police forces in England and Wales have rightly committed to pursuing any available evidence where there’s a reasonable chance it could lead them to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime, and we hope to see significant improvements in the way the police approach crimes like shoplifting to bring more offenders to justice.’
Paul Gerrard, the chain’s campaigns and public affairs director, said there has been a 41 per cent rise in incidents of shoplifting in the first eight months of the year
