Shoplifting crackdown: Operation Opal identifies 152 shoplifters in three months

Police recorded 443,995 shoplifting offences in the year leading up to March 2024

Police chiefs are reporting significant progress in their battle against shoplifting epidemic, thanks to the newly established centralised police unit - Operation Opal.

Launched earlier this year, Operation Opal is the national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime.

The team collects evidence from CCTV footage, crime reports and other sources from all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Police chiefs believe that unit is starting to “turn the tide” against prolific shoplifters who are used by organised crime groups to steal goods en masse, The Times reported.

The Operation Opal team has already identified 152 prolific people involved in organised retail crime within the first three months of the operation.

Among those identified was Alexandru-Iulian Dima, a 25-year-old Romanian man who arrived in the UK last year.

Within his first 12 months in the UK, he stole £60,000 worth of products from Boots stores across England, Wales and Scotland.

Dima was jailed this month for four years after pleading guilty to 32 shoplifting offences.

Home Office officials are in the process of securing a deportation order to return him to Romania, the report said.

The breakthrough in Dima's case came when Operation Opal identified similar patterns of shoplifting in Boots stores across the UK and tracked his movements to South Wales.

Local authorities were alerted, and South Wales police ran a sting operation after receiving a tip-off that Dima was planning his next heist in Pontypridd.

As shoplifting rates rise in Britain, retailers are adopting various strategies to combat theft. For instance, in January, the Boots store in Purley, South London, removed popular items like baby formula from its shelves and placed them out of reach to deter thieves.

Some retailers are employing tactics such as dummy displays, locked cabinets, and advanced tagging to prevent shoplifting, while others are investing in staff training and enhanced security measures.

The increase in shoplifting is partly attributed to the cost-of-living crisis.

According to Project Pegasus, a collaborative initiative involving several UK retailers including Boots, consumer shoplifting surged by up to 37 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year.

An analysis by The Times of official data revealed that police recorded 443,995 shoplifting offences in the year leading up to March 2024, a substantial rise from 326,440 in the same period a decade ago.

The analysis also showed a dramatic decline in the number of shoplifters being punished, with only 431 fixed penalty notices issued in the past year—down 98 per cent from 2014.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has vowed to address the growing 'epidemic' of shoplifting through her proposed Crime and Policing Bill, which aims to grant police stronger powers.