Shoplifters carrying shopping lists, says M&S manager

**Shoplifters carrying shopping lists, says M&S manager**

Elisa Lewis said there was no such thing as a 'typical' shoplifter

Shoplifters are entering Marks & Spencer stores with shopping lists in an effort to steal goods worth thousands of pounds, according to a regional manager.

Elisa Lewis, who oversees M&S shops in Shropshire, said shoplifting was a "really large issue" and could happen "a daily, possibly even hourly, occurrence".

"In my experience it can be anybody," she said. "It can be a bored housewife who's just nicking a jacket for a bit of fun, and the people who we do catch are sometimes those we least expect."

Some shoplifters were people with alcohol or drug dependence who said they were "just doing it to survive".

As a physically smaller woman, she said she found confronting some of them "intimidating", though experience had made her more hardened to it.

BBC-collected figures show a slight drop in shoplifting offences across England and Wales in the last financial year, and the same trend was seen in the West Mercia police force area.

Marks and Spencer has a policy of giving shoplifters lifetime bans, which Lewis said could be a major deterrent and a major shock, particularly for younger offenders.

However, she said it was sometimes a genuine mistake, and staff would take people to the company's in-house detention room to try to understand their motives before taking action.

In other cases, though, it is deliberate, and she said: "They've come in with a special order, and they go around stealing to order, and that can go into thousands of pounds depending on what people are asking for."

She said the run-up to Christmas was always a peak period for shoplifting, with people wanting presents and money.

She also said the quieter times of day tended to be the busiest.

"Usually you find in your first hour of trade is where you're get people who're reliant on money, drugs, etc," she said.

"They will head for your meat, your alcohol, your suits, because that's what they'll get the most money for."

Lewis said she had seen shoplifting rise and fall alongside the cost of living, but added: "When there is a presence in the town, they are deterred."

Insp Ingrid Tozer, the West Mercia Police officer in charge of Shrewsbury town centre, said a greater police presence there was having an impact.

Since October, six police officers and a sergeant have been based in the town, and she said shoplifting incidents had declined.

"The feedback has been fantastic," she said, and the force believed it had issued criminal behaviour orders to the most prolific offenders.

But getting traders involved has been difficult.

PC Joseph Bradley, one of the officers based in Shrewsbury, said: "We spent quite a bit of time trying to encourage the shops to report thefts into us.

"We went through a period when we weren't necessarily getting a lot of reports in."

He has worked in the town for 16 years and said he had spent a lot of time developing relationships with traders to make that happen.

That was echoed by Cath Harmer from Shrewsbury BID - a group representing businesses in the town.

Harmer said: "There is a tendency for retailers to absorb that theft rather than reporting it," and she wanted to ensure they keep reporting crime.