Shop thieves are increasingly stealing to order, with demand for stolen goods driving the crime, a leading criminologist has warned. Professor Emmeline Taylor, professor of criminology at City St George's, University of London, made the comments on the latest episode of 'High Street Matters' from the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), which works with over 6,000 independent retailers across the UK.
Thieves paid more for pre-arranged sales
Professor Taylor, who wrote a report for the National Business Crime Centre on where stolen goods end up, said thieves with a buyer already lined up get at least half of the retail price, compared with around a third when they sell after the event. She said: "There's an economic incentive for the thieves to establish their network of buyers before they go and target items."
Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of Bira, said: "If you can close the market off for stolen goods, you do start to decrease the attractiveness of that market for the organised criminals."
Police-recorded theft falls 4%
Police-recorded shop theft fell 4% to 507,086 offences in the year to March 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), after reaching a record of around 530,000 the year before. Industry estimates suggest the real number of incidents is between 17 million and 20 million a year.
Professor Taylor said: "I would not yet suggest that that 4% reduction actually means an on-the-ground reduction in the level of criminality that retailers are experiencing."
Retailers reluctant to report theft
Bira's own survey of members in June found that more than 45% of those who experienced theft did not report it to the police. Goodacre said: "There's still this feeling that the retailers are out on their own trying to deal with a problem that has exploded in the last few years."
Professor Taylor also warned of the damage done by illicit shops on the high street. She said: "Every time we allow one of those illegal businesses to thrive on the high street, it is directly putting another legitimate business out of business because they simply cannot operate on such an unlevel playing field." The episode is titled 'Stolen To Order' and can be found by searching 'High Street Matters Bira' on podcast providers.
