Bolton shop owners complain of rising thefts

The Office for National Statistics has reported in the year to September it had risen 22 per cent.

The British Retail Consortium has estimated there were eight million theft incidents in 2022 which cost a total of £953million.

And retailers in the centre of Bolton have said that the problem had worsened in recent months.

James Leather works at Signature Textiles, also in the market.

He said: “We have got six CCTV cameras which is a lot of a store of this size.

“Our old system got vandalised, that was about a year and a half ago.

“A lot of the time people take whatever they can, we have had someone take a full duvet, other people have taken pillows.

“We are a small business operating on a small profit margin so it does affect our profits.”

Rebecca Davis owns the RCTC Hardware store in the market.

She said: “I would say it has been getting worse in the last few months.

“There have been a lot of mobile phone stolen.

“It is not fair.

“We want people to come to the market and I want an open area.

“It is not opportunistic, they know what they are doing.

“Recently we had someone down at the bottom of the store while someone else took socks, it is really bad.”

Faheem Shah, the director of SH Groceries in the Bolton Market, also spoke about the problem.

He said: “It is getting worse.

“Every weeks there are at least two to three, last Saturday we had two people.

“Sometimes they come in from outside and sometimes from further inside the store.

“I have heard some of the stolen items are being sold on Derby Street.”

Mr Shah also said he had moved hardware items further inside his store to prevent further thefts.

Under UK Law if someone is convicted of shoplifting items worth less than £200 the maximum sentence which can be imposed is six months imprisonment.

If the items are worth more than £200 then the maximum is seven years in custody.