Kids as young as seven are driving a new wave of “lawless” retail crime, with shopkeepers too afraid to tackle them for fear of being labelled child abusers. The number of children caught in possession of stolen goods has almost doubled in the space of four years in Scotland.
Business owners told the Record of the rising threat of “untouchable” child shoplifters causing carnage in their stores, saying perpetrators are getting younger and thefts more frequent. One Glasgow city centre store has been repeatedly targeted by violent, masked gangs of up to 20 kids in recent months, who take what they want and attack staff.
Shopkeepers say they are “powerless” to tackle the problem, which goes largely unpunished by police, with many instead resorting to shaming culprits on social media.
Glasgow shopkeeper calls for law change
Amjid Bashir, who owns Newsbox on Glasgow’s Queen Street, shared shocking footage with the Record after his premises were attacked several times in just a few weeks and said the law must change to hold young offenders to account. He has called on the Scottish Government for help.
He said: “It’s the same sort of groups that come in. They’ll mask up and put on balaclavas before they come into the shop, so it’s definitely planned.
“We can’t do anything because they’re minors and if we touch them we’ll get charged. We can’t expel them - they’ll say ‘make us’. I’ve been physically attacked and so have my staff. My shop’s been smashed up.
“I am intimidated. My staff have expressed that maybe it’s too dangerous for them to work in retail anymore.
“We’ve lost so much money in terms of theft but it’s actually very violent.
“You get groups of 10-15 - sometimes as many as 20 children coming in. They range from the age of 10 to 13-14 years old. They go mob-handed into the shop and steal goods, sweets, whatever, and quite often end up vandalising stuff as well.
“On a recent occasion they came in and started to be abusive and steal items near the door. Our tactic is to lower the electronic shutters. Six or seven of them physically held the shutter up and were throwing items into the shop and ended up smashing a door. Passers by were just watching this happen.
“We dread school holidays because they are out in the city centres.”
Police 'powerless' to act
Amjid and other business owners say they have seen little action taken by police when they report thefts. He said: “It’s got to the point where we call the police and the police are powerless to do anything.
“The law isn’t strong enough to prosecute them given their ages. There has to be consequences so they know they can’t get away with this thuggery and lawless behaviour.”
Amjid has asked Alison Thewliss, Minister for Community Care, to urgently raise the matter in parliament, calling for “meaningful action before somebody is seriously injured”.
Mohammad Rajak, who has run Buywell Day-Today in Glasgow’s east end for more than three decades, said theft by children is also up in his store. He said: “The concern is also that the younger generation know that they can’t be touched because of their age bracket.
“The shopkeeper says it’s just not worth my hassle to be labelled as a child abuser.
“It’s gone from being 14-15 year olds all the way down to seven, eight, nine year olds now. This is the age bracket that know they are untouchable. But theft is theft - it doesn’t matter if you’re a seven-year-old or a 60-year-old.”
Rising figures and exploitation fears
Analysis shows Police Scotland officers using stop and-search powers caught 48 young people, some as young as 12, between April and June this year. The numbers have risen from 104 in 2023-24 to 172 last year, and if the rest of 2026-27 continues at the rate it has started, 200 incidents will be recorded this year.
The data has led to fears that more children are being exploited by organised crime gangs, with the Scottish Government pledging an extra £3million to help police tackle retail crime. Last week the Scottish Police Federation’s chairman David Threadgold said the spike in figures suggested children are being “routinely exploited for the purposes of criminality”.
He said there is “no deterrent” as kids and criminals know they won’t be properly punished and sentencing guidelines which say under-25s should not be jailed only work if there are “proper preventative, educational or rehabilitative measures”.
Mohammed, who was previously slashed with a machete in his store, said: “We do report it on the Police Scotland website but it seems to be that once a crime has happened, they’re not really interested.
“The only way we can tackle it is by taking out our mobile phones and filming them. That seems to be a deterrent at the moment because they don’t want to be on Facebook but it will only be a matter of time before that doesn’t become a deterrent anymore.
“£3m doesn’t go anywhere close to filtering down to the shopkeepers to a level where we feel it is being utilised for our benefit.”
Retailers seek solutions
Umar Majid, who runs convenience store and cafe Baba’s Kitchen in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, invested in AI technology to detect potential shoplifters after he was smashed in the face with a can and battered by a thief. He said weekly shoplifting by children accounts for up to 15% of the theft from his store.
Umar said: “If you do catch children stealing there’s really not much you can do.
“You do feel powerless. It’s not as if you can kick them out the shop - you can’t touch them.”
Scottish Grocers Federation Chief Executive Dr Pete Cheema OBE said the sharp rise in the number of kids being caught with stolen goods highlights another “worrying dimension” of Scotland’s escalating problem with retail crime.
He said: “We welcome the work being undertaken by Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Taskforce, which has made progress in tackling retail crime and bringing offenders to justice. However, these latest figures demonstrate that much more needs to be done to address the scale and complexity of the problem.
“Retailers and their staff should not be left to bear the consequences of organised criminality. We need a coordinated response that protects children from exploitation, holds adults responsible to account and restores confidence among Scotland’s retail communities.”
David Lonsdale, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said reports of more children being involved in theft were “deeply alarming”.
He said: “Scottish retailers have invested heavily in crime prevention and we encourage them to report incidents as this is the best means of getting more resources of law enforcement directed to tackling the problem. The additional investment in the Retail Crime Task Force is a welcome step but we need to see more right action across the criminal justice system to bear down on this problem.”
Assistant Chief Constable Phil Davison said Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Taskforce and local policing divisions had improved intelligence gathering and proactive enforcement and engagement with retailers, helping build confidence in reporting.
He said: “We remain committed to tackling retail crime, while continuing to safeguard young people from harm and coercion into criminal behaviour.
“We will continue to gather evidence and use all resources at our disposal to tackle this type of crime.”
Victims and Community Safety Minister Kirsten Oswald said: “It is important to recognise that children can be exploited into committing crime by serious organised criminals for their own despicable ends. Such exploitation is abhorrent, and partners on Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime Taskforce will use all means at their disposal to ensure that those responsible are held to account.
“We are backing the recent Fearless campaign to raise awareness of the signs of the criminal exploitation of children and young people and to help people get support.
“I recognise the harm that retail crime has on businesses. We are providing an additional £3 million annually until 2028-29 for Police Scotland to support the work of the Retail Crime Taskforce. The Taskforce is delivering real results, targeting repeat offenders and using data and intelligence to drive enforcement in the most affected areas. In its first year, it resulted in over 6,400 charges, and the Taskforce continues to work with retailers and communities to help prevent and tackle retail crime.”
