Brazen middle class shoplifters have been blamed for pushing up prices for honest customers amid a shoplifting epidemic that has seen retail crime soar to £2.2billion a year.
Dame Diana Johnson, Labour’s policing and crime minister, has issued a stark warning to wealthier thieves, insisting ‘there will be consequences’ regardless of their background.
It comes amid a rise in well-heeled customers increasingly pinching goods from shops – with businesses’ claiming they feel ‘entitled’ to it.
Richard Fowler, the head of security at upmarket health food brand Planet Organic, last year coined the new band of shoplifters as ‘posh totty’ types who feel they can get away with stealing because they are regulars.
A wave of shamed middle class shoplifters have increasingly spoken out – typically under anonymity – to come clean about how and why they became addicted to stealing. Until they were caught, that is.
One mother, who worked in a well-paid IT job and lived in a comfortable three-bedroom home, told the Mail: There was absolutely no reason for me to steal.’
But the self-confessed middle class shoplifter, who was eventually caught after stealing £1,500 of goods over the 12 months, added: ‘Breaking the law felt dangerous and risky, but it also felt good.’
Filled with determination to crack down on Britain’s spiralling shoplifting epidemic, Dame Diana told the Telegraph: ‘It’s a crime. If you’re middle class, or whichever class you want to determine that you are, it’s a crime. That is just not acceptable because we all know that people end up paying higher prices if people are stealing.’
Dame Diana Johnson, Labour’s policing and crime minister, has issued a stark warning to wealthier thieves, insisting ‘there will be consequences’ regardless of their background
In a bid to combat the crime crippling the retail sector, the Government is planning to invest £200million into neighbourhood policing and has vowed to make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence.
It comes after the Government also axed previous legislation that made stealing goods worth less than £200 a ‘summary-only’ offence.
A ‘Fusion Cell’ programme for sharing intelligence on retail crime and thieves is also in the works.
Incidents of retail crime hit their highest level on record in the year leading up to August 2024, growing by more than 50 per cent to more than 2,000 incidents a day, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Graham Wynn, a director at the BRC, told the Telegraph: ‘The cost of theft has also risen to over £2.2bn a year, pushing up prices for honest shoppers and damaging the customer experience.’
While organised gangs have been held responsible for pinching luxury goods and selling them on for profit, a new culprit has been increasingly blamed for contributing to the crisis.
Retail bosses have increasingly sought to raise the alarm over shoplifting among the middle classes.
Archie Norman, chairman of Marks & Spencer, warned two years ago: ‘It’s too easy to say it’s a cost of living problem. Some of this shoplifting is by gangs. Then you get the middle class.
‘With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think: ‘This didn’t scan properly, or it’s very difficult to scan these things through, and I shop here all the time. It’s not my fault, I’m owed it’.’
Last summer, Mr Fowler, who manages security Planet Organic’s Chiswick branch, told the BBC the upmarket chain loses a staggering £900,000 a year across its nine London stores from stealing.
In March 2022, Nina Tiara, thought to be Britain’s most prolific middle-class shoplifter, was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail
She was often away from her £550,000 detached bungalow in a picturesque Wiltshire hamlet (pictured), stealing from shops across the country
He explained: ‘We’ve got our homeless… Then we have what I would call the posh totty people.
‘They shop in Planet Organic on a daily basis, they spend a lot of money with our business.
‘[They think] ”Today I’m a little bit short of money, so I’m entitled to steal something”.’
In March 2022, Nina Tiara, thought to be Britain’s most prolific middle-class shoplifter, was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail.
To her neighbours Tiara seemed the picture of respectability. She drove a gleaming Mercedes and lived in a neat, £550,000 detached house in a Wiltshire hamlet – but much of her lifestyle was funded by crime.
Since Tiara was caught, other middle class shoplifters have come forward, crippled by guilt.
One 53-year-old woman, married with two children in their 20s, previously told the Mail: ‘The thrill lies in getting away with it, I certainly don’t do it for financial gain because I don’t need to.’
Explaining how she first came swept up by the world of shoplifting, the retired executive office manager said: ‘I’d gone to collect some pre-ordered items but I also needed to buy a £150 power drill on the day.
‘I suddenly had this compulsion to peel the ‘already paid for’ sticker from one of my pre-ordered items and put it onto the power drill instead. To avert suspicion, I picked up a few bedding plants costing around £5, which I put through the till.
‘My heart was hammering, and I fully expected to feel the hand of a security guard on my shoulder. But by the time I got to the car, I felt such a buzz. I couldn’t believe I’d got away with it. I can explain it only as a sudden, impetuous two fingers up to the fact that life was – and still is – very stressful.’
Part of the power she felt, she admitted, was that nobody would ever have her down as a shoplifter. She’s bright, articulate, well-spoken, takes pride in her appearance and makes a point of chatting to shop staff as she goes about her business.
‘I’ve witnessed shoplifters running out of the supermarkets with staff chasing after them,’ she adds. ‘I get away with it because I’m the calm, middle-aged, middle-class woman who looks so normal and respectable. I’ve seen other women like me fill up their trolleys and walk brazenly past security staff without paying for a thing.’
Another mother, operating in the US, admitted to brazenly shoplifting in her affluent suburb – and no one ever said a thing.
That was until she left a store and approached her car when a male voice behind her said: ‘Excuse me, can I pull you to one side?’
Richard Fowler (pictured), who manages security at Planet Organic, said last year that shoplifting at the Chiswick branch takes place ‘every day’
Brazen middle class customers feel ‘entitled’ to steal from Planet Organic because they are regulars, the head of security claimed
Planet Organic has nine stores across London and claims all the products it sells are completely organic
She recalled to the Mail: ‘Why would they suspect me? I appeared to be an ordinary middle-class mother-of-two. I earned a decent salary working in IT and lived in a comfortable three-bedroom home with my family. There was absolutely no reason for me to steal.
‘I’ve since learned that I am part of a wave of so-called ‘middle-class shoplifters’.
She said she didn’t seek out high-end items, rather items such as a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, some wholemeal wraps or bags of salads.
The well-heeled shoplifter believes the thrill she got from ‘breaking the rules’ stemmed from her experience in lockdown.
She explained: ‘I felt trapped at home. I missed playgroups and coffee mornings so much. I felt flat and miserable.
‘We got through those two years, but as life slowly returned to normal – and I cared for my new baby – my urge to steal started.
‘The thrilling tingle of a successful theft was like a drug. When my mood was low, I could steal items two or three times a week, usually from my local mini-supermarket.’
In April, the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales passed half a million for the first time.
An astonishing 516,971 offences were logged by forces last year, up 20 per cent from 429,873 in 2023.
The figure is the highest since current police records began 22 year ago in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Shoplifting offences have been at record levels for the past two years and have seen a ‘sharp rise’ since the pandemic, the ONS said.
In March, the BRC said the cost of retail crime has soared to a staggering £4.2billion last year – including £2.2billion from shoplifting and another £1.8billion spent on crime prevention measures such as CCTV, anti-theft devices and body worn cameras.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: ‘Seeing incidents of theft or abuse has become an all-too-common part of the shopping experience for many people.
‘While an incident can be over in a matter of seconds, it can have life-long consequences on those who experience it, making them think twice about visiting their local high streets.
‘Criminals are becoming bolder and more aggressive, and decisive action is needed to put an end to it.’
