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Middle-class shoplifters with a taste for speciality food are on the rise in the UK, a retail security company is warning, after theft from British shops surged to an all-time high.
Goods worth a staggering £4.88bn were pinched in the last 12 months - up 20% from last year, a report from Checkpoint Systems showed.
Designer clothing, football shirts, lingerie and leather items are high up on thieves' shopping lists, and shoplifted items now account for 1.85% of total 'sales'.
Meanwhile, in speciality food and convenience stores, cooked and fresh meat, cheese, seafood and fish and alcohol all featuring strongly among stolen products, which represent 1.80% of sales.
"We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell-on than before.
<span style="font-weight: bold">"This is epitomised in the recent uprising of the middle-class shoplifter, someone who has turned to theft to sustain their standard of living, and this is driving theft of items such as cosmetics, perfumes and face creams, alcohol, fresh meat, mobile phones, computer games and DVDs as well as small electrical goods like cameras, iPods and personal care gadgets."</span>
Goods worth a staggering £4.88bn were pinched in the last 12 months - up 20% from last year, a report from Checkpoint Systems showed.
Designer clothing, football shirts, lingerie and leather items are high up on thieves' shopping lists, and shoplifted items now account for 1.85% of total 'sales'.
Meanwhile, in speciality food and convenience stores, cooked and fresh meat, cheese, seafood and fish and alcohol all featuring strongly among stolen products, which represent 1.80% of sales.
"We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell-on than before.
<span style="font-weight: bold">"This is epitomised in the recent uprising of the middle-class shoplifter, someone who has turned to theft to sustain their standard of living, and this is driving theft of items such as cosmetics, perfumes and face creams, alcohol, fresh meat, mobile phones, computer games and DVDs as well as small electrical goods like cameras, iPods and personal care gadgets."</span>