𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Self-service checkouts are leading “good, honest people” to shoplift, the chairman of Marks and Spencer has claimed. Retail giant Archie Norman said people are stealing items because the technology is failing.

And he warned that marauding gangs of thieves swiping items off shelves sends a signal to society “that it’s not safe”. Mr Norman said self-service technology needed to be “easier for people to use” to help avoid rising rates of shoplifting at unmanned checkouts, which had broken the “human link” between retailers and shoppers. It comes as the Daily Express can reveal 70% of police probes into shoplifting collapse due to a lack of evidence.

In the year to December, 279,257 of the 509,566 crimes reported to police were closed before the thief was even identified. A further 77,000 cases were shelved due to insufficient evidence.

But Mr Norman, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, revealed a new dynamic in Britain’s shoplifting crisis: “When normally good, honest people come in and they’re buying their shopping and it doesn’t scan, and there’s nobody manning the checkouts, they’re saying: ‘It’s not my fault and I don’t have much time so if I can’t get my strawberries through, I’ll just put them in my basket’.”

Mr Norman said retailers did not “have to bring back in-person checkouts”, but he said “it does mean you’ve got to make the technology easier for people to use”.

The high street retail giant has been installing hundreds more self-checkouts across its stores in recent years, with 800 rolled out across its chain in 2023 as it looked to save £150million.

M&S recently called on London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to put “effective policing” in the capital at the top of the agenda after one of its stores in Clapham was ransacked by a teenage mob.

More than 100 teenagers stormed the M&S store on Clapham High Street late last month.

Analysis of Home Office figures show an alarming 357,845 shoplifting cases were closed last year due to a lack of evidence.

Only 116,641 alleged thieves were charged or summonsed before a judge last year.

Axon, which provides retail staff with body-worn cameras, said stock losses fell by 7% when staff wore body-worn cameras at least 80% of the time.

And the firm has vowed to give shopworkers new devices that can capture higher-quality footage and store it to produce “more complete incident records, providing police and the Crown Prosecution Service with the material they need to investigate crime”.

Alex Lowe, UK and Ireland regional director at Axon, said: “The data tells a clear and troubling story: shoplifting is rising, and more than half of cases still collapse because there is simply not enough usable evidence.

“Body-worn cameras close this evidence gap, helping to reduce retail crime and protect staff. That’s why we’re excited to bring our new technology to UK retailers this year.”

Lucy Whing, crime policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retailers have invested over £5billion in the last five years to tackle retail crime.

“This includes body-worn cameras, security tags, and other innovative technologies aimed at both preventing crime and gathering crucial evidence to prosecute those that perpetrate it.

“Ultimately, we are all victims of retail crime, which pushes up the price of goods for honest shoppers.”