Gangs to blame for half of all shoplifting

Published on Saturday 9 January 2010 18:30

ORGANISED crime groups are now behind more than half of all Scotland's shoplifting, a new investigation has revealed.

Major gangs, some with more than 100 active members, are stealing millions of pounds in goods from the high street.

Maxine Fraser, the head of Retailers Against Crime, a body set up to tackle shoplifting, was interviewed by the BBC during an investigation into The Millionaire Thieves. She said: "Over 50 per cent of losses reported to us are committed by organised teams and organised individuals."

The programme, to be broadcast tomorrow on BBC1 Scotland, will expose some of the biggest "teams" raiding shops across Britain. The most prolific are from Scotland, including the 150-strong shoplifting "wing" of the McGovern crime clan based in Glasgow.

The broadcast includes CCTV footage of four members stealing jackets worth 1,500 in two minutes. It also shows them carrying out repeated raids on Carlisle shops.

Sergeant Richard Higgin, who works in Carlisle, believes the McGovern gang poses the biggest threat to retailers"because of the amount of property they take and their organisational skills; we do get hit hard".

Scotland on Sunday last year revealed that Scottish shoplifting gangs linked to organised crime were raiding England, Ireland and continental Europe.

Last week the British Retail Consortium said its members lost more than 1.1 billion to shoplifting in 2009. Reported incidents were up a third, bucking an overall downward trend for crime. Physical assaults on staff doubled.

Scottish figures last year showed the first rise in recorded shoplifting for a decade, up by 10 per cent to 32,048 cases.

&#149 The Millionaire Thieves. BBC1 Scotland, tomorrow, 7.30pm.