When Rhys, 34, stole goods from shops across Birmingham, he would often leave notes for the staff apologising for his actions.
“I’d feel that guilty about it. I’d pass them notes, saying I’m so sorry about this,” he said. “But in the end, I was just that numb to it, and fearless as well. I’d walk in with a suitcase and ram everything into it, and not think twice about it.”
Rhys was in the grips of drug addiction and turned to shoplifting to fund his habit. He had struggled with drug use since he was a teenager and then, in 2019, he took crack cocaine for the first time. “Within a week, I was going into shops and shoplifting for it, because you just can’t get enough,” he said.
Over the next few years, he shoplifted 10-15 times a day and was sent to prison several times. However, without help to tackle his addiction, Rhys struggled to change his behaviour.
“I’d spend hours shoplifting but, at the end of the day, I still wouldn’t have anything to eat. I’d be jumping back over the fence to go through the bins to get myself a sandwich. I wouldn’t even get myself a bottle of water,” he said. “My priority was always getting the stuff to sell for drugs.”
On Wednesday, the home secretary announced plans to target 500 of the most prolific shoplifters across the country with police crackdowns in 17 areas. Measures include banning repeat offenders from high streets and town centres, closer monitoring of offenders with regular hearings before a judge and the use of electronic tagging.
But former shoplifters say many prolific thieves are in the grip of drug addiction or experiencing mental health crises, and without more funding for support services, the problem will not go away.
Keeley turned her life around after attending a drug support service. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Keeley, 44, was once labelled Birmingham’s most prolific shoplifter, stealing between £5,000 and £9,000 worth of goods a day. She was sent to prison 28 times. Keeley had been addicted to drugs since the age of 13, after being groomed by an older man, and stole items such as designer handbags, which she could sell quickly to fund her habit. Her biggest fear was withdrawal, which had previously left her in hospital for 10 days.
She said shoplifting was an exhausting necessity – one that often led to her walking 30,000 steps a day. “Shoplifting, to a lot of us, is the closest to a victimless crime as you can get. You’re not violating anyone’s house or privacy, or robbing food out of their mouth.
“I know it’s not right, but it’s what we tell ourselves to justify it at the time – that you’re not hurting anyone – because none of us want to be doing what we’re doing.”
Keeley said she “didn’t get caught much for the amount of stuff that I stole”. Yet she spent three decades in and out of prison, never receiving the help she needed.
The number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales rose to a record high in 2024. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
She eventually turned her life around when an off-duty security guard referred her to a drug support service, which led to her receiving buprenorphine injections to treat her opioid dependence.
“We’re crying that we’ve got a shoplifting crisis, and we’re crying that we’ve got a drug crisis, but no one’s doing anything about the two together,” Keeley said. “If you treat the root cause and take the addiction away, we’ve got no reason to go out and commit crime.”
For Rhys, help came in the form of an outreach navigator – a professional who connects vulnerable people to social services, housing and healthcare. He has been in recovery for 18 months, spends his time volunteering and has left shoplifting behind.
“I went into Aldi the other day, and I asked for a carrier bag and scanned it straight away. It’s such a weird comparison – now I’m scanning these 30p bags. But before, I was going in there and filling a suitcase to steal,” he said.
The social justice charity Revolving Doors said addiction, poor mental health and homelessness – often all three at once – were substantial drivers of Britain’s shoplifting epidemic.
Pavan Dhaliwal, the charity’s chief executive, said: “The anger of retailers and shop workers is justified. Theft is not victimless, and abuse of staff is intolerable.
“But if we want fewer thefts, rather than just more arrests, we have to ask a harder question: why does the same small group of people keep cycling through crisis and custody repeatedly?”
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She said services that can direct people away from addiction and into stable housing were essential. “The people we work with show that recovery and rebuilding lives are possible with the right support.”
Sean now runs Rehab Fitness, which supports people recovering from addiction. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Sean, 44, has been to prison 42 times since 2000. For decades, he had not spent more than six months out of custody and felt “powerless to addiction” that drove him to crime after a traumatic childhood.
He stole food and clothes because all his money was spent on drugs, and prison brought no long-term solutions.
“The last five times I was in prison, I was a recovery mentor, taking people on circuits every day in the yard, feeling on top of my game,” Sean said. “But back in Wigan, usually within a couple of days or even a couple of hours, I’d be back doing what I’ve always done. I was completely let down by services.”
It was only when he was picked up at the prison gates by an addiction recovery service and started therapy that his life turned around. Sean now runs Rehab Fitness, which helps people recovering from addiction through group exercise and wellness activities.
He said many of his friends had turned to shop crime because there were “no consequences”, adding that the intervention should be help and support, not prison.
Prison also failed to rehabilitate Roy, 36. He was jailed several times – on one occasion after stealing wine from a shop while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Roy says prison was only a temporary reset. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
“I had money in my pocket. I don’t know why I did it – I couldn’t even remember it afterwards. I was a different person; dead behind the eyes,” he said. “Prison would be a reset but I’d be straight in with the old crowd when I came out.”
Roy managed to get clean, and now runs Iron Minds Academy, which offers physical fitness and mentoring to young men in Wigan. “I just want to stop other young people getting to that point, for them to see there’s another path,” he said.
“When you’re leaving school, no one says I want to be on the streets addicted to heroin. We need to stop it before it gets that far, it can save someone’s life.”
