\n<\/p>\n
When Rhys, 34, stole goods from shops across Birmingham, he would often leave notes for the staff apologising for his actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d feel that guilty about it. I\u2019d pass them notes, saying I\u2019m so sorry about this,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in the end, I was just that numb to it, and fearless as well. I\u2019d walk in with a suitcase and ram everything into it, and not think twice about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u201cWithin a week, I was going into shops and shoplifting for it, because you just can\u2019t get enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d spend hours shoplifting but, at the end of the day, I still wouldn\u2019t have anything to eat. I\u2019d be jumping back over the fence to go through the bins to get myself a sandwich. I wouldn\u2019t even get myself a bottle of water,\u201d he said. \u201cMy priority was always getting the stuff to sell for drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Keeley turned her life around after attending a drug support service.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Keeley, 44, was once labelled Birmingham\u2019s most prolific shoplifter, stealing between \u00a35,000 and \u00a39,000 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.<\/p>\n She said shoplifting was an exhausting necessity \u2013 one that often led to her walking 30,000 steps a day. \u201cShoplifting, to a lot of us, is the closest to a victimless crime as you can get. You\u2019re not violating anyone\u2019s house or privacy, or robbing food out of their mouth.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s not right, but it\u2019s what we tell ourselves to justify it at the time \u2013 that you\u2019re not hurting anyone \u2013 because none of us want to be doing what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Keeley said she \u201cdidn\u2019t get caught much for the amount of stuff that I stole\u201d. Yet she spent three decades in and out of prison, never receiving the help she needed.<\/p>\n <\/span>The number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales rose to a record high in 2024.<\/span> Photograph: Andy Rain\/EPA<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re crying that we\u2019ve got a shoplifting crisis, and we\u2019re crying that we\u2019ve got a drug crisis, but no one\u2019s doing anything about the two together,\u201d Keeley said. \u201cIf you treat the root cause and take the addiction away, we\u2019ve got no reason to go out and commit crime.\u201d<\/p>\n For Rhys, help came in the form of an outreach navigator \u2013 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI went into Aldi the other day, and I asked for a carrier bag and scanned it straight away. It\u2019s such a weird comparison \u2013 now I\u2019m scanning these 30p bags. But before, I was going in there and filling a suitcase to steal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The social justice charity Revolving Doors said addiction, poor mental health and homelessness \u2013 often all three at once \u2013 were substantial drivers of Britain\u2019s shoplifting epidemic.<\/p>\n Pavan Dhaliwal, the charity\u2019s chief executive, said: \u201cThe anger of retailers and shop workers is justified. Theft is not victimless, and abuse of staff is intolerable.<\/p>\n \u201cBut 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?\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/span>Free newsletter |<\/span>Every weekday<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sign up to First Edition<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n She said services that can direct people away from addiction and into stable housing were essential. \u201cThe people we work with show that recovery and rebuilding lives are possible with the right support.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Sean now runs Rehab Fitness, which supports people recovering from addiction.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n 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 \u201cpowerless to addiction\u201d that drove him to crime after a traumatic childhood.<\/p>\n He stole food and clothes because all his money was spent on drugs, and prison brought no long-term solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Sean said. \u201cBut back in Wigan, usually within a couple of days or even a couple of hours, I\u2019d be back doing what I\u2019ve always done. I was completely let down by services.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He said many of his friends had turned to shop crime because there were \u201cno consequences\u201d, adding that the intervention should be help and support, not prison.<\/p>\n Prison also failed to rehabilitate Roy, 36. He was jailed several times \u2013 on one occasion after stealing wine from a shop while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n <\/span>Roy says prison was only a temporary reset.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI had money in my pocket. I don\u2019t know why I did it \u2013 I couldn\u2019t even remember it afterwards. I was a different person; dead behind the eyes,\u201d he said. \u201cPrison would be a reset but I\u2019d be straight in with the old crowd when I came out.\u201d<\/p>\n Roy managed to get clean, and now runs Iron Minds Academy, which offers physical fitness and mentoring to young men in Wigan. \u201cI just want to stop other young people getting to that point, for them to see there\u2019s another path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re 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\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Rhys, 34, stole goods from shops across Birmingham, he would often leave notes for the staff apologising for his actions. \u201cI\u2019d feel that guilty about it. I\u2019d pass them notes, saying I\u2019m so sorry about this,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in the end, I was just that numb to it, and fearless as well. I\u2019d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[25427,131,4875,25426,1545,6754,2226,25428,1488,1862],"class_list":{"0":"post-52649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-addictions","9":"tag-day","10":"tag-driving","11":"tag-exoffenders","12":"tag-industry","13":"tag-prolific","14":"tag-retail","15":"tag-shoplifting","16":"tag-steal","17":"tag-times"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}