A Worcester business owner is cracking down on thieves who have caused him to lose hundreds of pounds of stock.
Wayne Jarvis, 42, caught five shoplifters on CCTV grabbing items from his shop, Fifty Scents, in just one week.
The shop only opened in April, offering candles, bath bombs and novelty ducks – which shoplifters love.
Now, he’s fighting back by shaming shoplifters by posting videos of their crimes on social media.
‘It’s quite often everyday Joes who end up stealing, so reporting them to the police doesn’t quite help, as they’re not on the system,’ Wayne said.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
Oddly, the thieves love to grab the novelty ducks, which retail for around £7. Wayne added, ‘I don’t get why.
‘Ten out of the 25 types of ducks we stock have been stolen. It’s because they can, not because they need to.’
Wayne said the local police do what they can, but it’s not much – one thief was given a ‘community resolution’, which he says is akin to an apology.
‘Quite often, we resolve it by putting their faces on Facebook. Then, they come and pay for it. They know they can get away with it; they haven’t got to worry about it,’ he said.
‘I don’t just think it’s my shop, I think it’s everyone. I’m just the one who is catching them and reporting them. It’s everybody. We’ve caught kids, pensioners, adults, and drug addicts. It’s a free-for-all for shoplifters at the moment.’
Wayne said he believes shoplifting has gotten worse as sentences for the thieves are becoming more lenient.
He hopes that by sharing CCTV footage of light-fingered customers scooping his stock, they’ll stop.
A spokesperson for West Mercia Police said: ‘In Worcester, the town centre team is tackling shoplifting through increased visibility, working with partner agencies and building relationships with business communities.
‘Officers carry out regular patrols, in both uniform and plain clothes, in Worcester city centre to deter criminals from offending and to catch them in the process. Officers are deployed to locations where we know crime regularly occurs, which is based on evidence and intelligence gathered.
‘Where appropriate, we will pursue justice either through a local resolution or through the courts as appropriate based on the circumstances of each case.’
It’s not just Worcester where shoplifting has become an issue – the UK is witnessing an epidemic of theft.
There was a total of 469,788 offences logged by police forces in England and Wales in the year to June 2024. That is a 29% leap from the 365,173 recorded in the 12 months previous.
The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Shoplifting levels had already reached a 20-year high earlier this year, with the latest figures showing them rising even higher.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
