Plan to tag and track prolific shoplifters in Croydon

**Plan to tag and track prolific shoplifters in Croydon**

Wine, coffee and chocolate are the main items shoplifters are targeting.

A shoplifter is seen on CCTV taking bottles from a fridge and hiding them inside his clothing in one of many videos collected by Ben Selvaratnam.

Selvaratnam, the owner and managing director of Freshfields Market in Croydon, said his family-run grocery store experiences at least two or three incidents like this every day, costing him hundreds of pounds daily.

He said products such as wine, coffee and chocolate are the main targets, and that the effect on his business and employees has been harmful.

Selvaratnam has given a cautious welcome to Croydon Council’s plans to introduce electronic tagging for prolific shoplifters later this year.

He said: "We're a small family business.

"We don't have a big head office to offset the costs so we do try to retrieve stolen goods.

"We do challenge shoplifters and say look we need this back, and at that point it's 50-50 whether they give it back or not.

"If they do, it's fine and they leave, and if not then it can be abuse, it can be aggression, it can be violence and it can be very disheartening to be on the back end of that."

The shop owner, who is also co-founder of the Croydon Business Association, described the GPS tracking system as "a great idea... identifying these repeat offenders, making sure that there's consequences".

However, he added: "To make the GPS tracking work there really needs to be the enforcement.

"They just can't be an expensive ankle bracelet."

Jason Perry wants to see if prolific shoplifters can be electronically tagged and is hoping to run a trial to see how well it would work

Croydon’s Conservative elected mayor, Jason Perry, said he intends to launch a pilot scheme within the next couple of months.

If that happens, Croydon would become the first London borough to electronically tag prolific shoplifters.

He said he was in discussions with the Metropolitan Police about how the scheme could operate.

"It's a tagging system that essentially is put on the individual," said Perry.

"It's run through the police and the local court system so we're working with both of those at the moment.

"We're [looking at] doing it as a trial period to see how well it works, before we think about rolling that out any further."

The concept was first brought in in East Sussex last year by Sussex's Conservative police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne.

That programme involved a small number of prolific shoplifters being fitted with lightweight GPS ankle tags that tracked when they entered shopping areas from which courts had banned them.

Croydon Council said shoplifting had fallen in the borough over the past year. It said there were 4,796 reported shop thefts in the town centre in the last 12 months, down from 5,043 in the previous year.

Croydon’s elected mayor attributes that decline to several measures, including live facial recognition cameras introduced in the borough earlier this year by the Metropolitan Police, with Croydon Council’s backing, to identify a range of offenders.

Perry said: "We've seen that bringing down crime.

"We've got a public space protection order that's reduced antisocial behaviour by 24% over the past three years.

"So all of these measures together mean that we're making Croydon a safer place to enjoy life, to shop and to live."

Councillor Janet Campbell has called for more information on the tagging plans

Councillor Janet Campbell said her Labour group on Croydon Council supports the idea of electronically tagging prolific offenders, but she said the elected mayor must give more detail.

She said: "We feel as though the people of Croydon deserve more than a proposal.

"What they deserve is some detail as to how this is going to happen, where the funding is going to come from, and will he have the power to fulfil this proposal."

Sussex Police told BBC London that GPS tags cost between £275 and £400 each, although individual forces may be able to negotiate different discounts depending on volume.

The force said the tagging pilot scheme had prevented "100 shop thefts", saving an estimated £5,600 in police costs and £28,300 in wider criminal justice costs.

The Met recorded 90,071 shoplifting offences in 2025-26.

According to information gathered by the BBC Data Unit, London accounted for almost one in every five (18%) shoplifting crimes recorded across England and Wales last year.

Nationally, 53% of shoplifting investigations ended with no suspect identified, but in London the figure was 70%, giving the Metropolitan Police the worst rate in England and Wales.

Shoplifting remains a major problem across the country. In London, the main concern appears to be enforcement, with the capital recording the highest number of offences.

The Met said only 104 prolific shoplifters across London were linked to 4,389 offences over the past two years - and offenders had to commit at least 31 offences before receiving a custodial sentence.

In August, the Met introduced a new reporting platform in several London boroughs that allows retailers to send CCTV footage, witness statements and other evidence directly to police moments after a crime.

The force worked with major retailers in six London boroughs, including Tesco, Boots, Greggs and M&S, for the six-month pilot scheme.

The technology was first tested in Bexley, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, and Westminster.

It was then extended to subscribing retailers in Bromley, Croydon, Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Lambeth, Southwark and Sutton.

When shoplifting was reported in the six boroughs piloting the technology, 29.4% of cases led to a caution, charge or other criminal disposal, compared with 7.3% before the pilot began.

The British Independent Retail Association welcomed the technology, but said it could be difficult for smaller businesses that cannot afford it.

Croydon residents Derrick (left), Leonard and Bunty spoke to BBC London

In Croydon, local businesses say they have already been doing their part to address shop theft.

Since 2022, the Croydon Business Improvement District has employed uniformed street patrols, known as BID rangers, who are funded by local businesses to maintain a visible presence in the town centre and deter shoplifters and anti-social behaviour.

The idea of electronically tagging prolific shoplifters drew mixed reactions from shoppers in Croydon town centre.

Derrick Edmunds said: "It would help cut down the shoplifting wouldn't it. I mean it's quite rampant really."

Leonard Wilson disagreed: "I don't think that idea would stop anything because they would do it with the tags on the same way."

Another local, Bunty Bunce, said the sight of people wearing electronic tags would scare her: "I think, if I saw people walking around with a tag there, I would think they weren't just a shoplifter.

"I thought they would be threatening. I would be scared to go near them. I'd be very scared. So whether that would be good for them or for the public, I'm not quite sure. There might be another way."