Making Our Communities Safer - Better Places
A look back at 112 of the most violent and abusive incidents UK retailers and security teams experience that made headline news in 2021
By Paul Lynch 18 January 2022
In the United Kingdom an average of 455 retail staff are assaulted or subjected to abuse every single day, whilst 200 incidents of theft are reported and recorded every hour.
Violence towards staff, theft from retail outlets and other businesses are becoming more prominent across the UK, making the places we live, shop and work feel unsafe.
Retail crime is costing retailers increasing amounts of money every year, amounting to a total of £2.2 billion in the UK alone. This amount includes money directly lost through crime along with what retailers are spending on loss prevention in the last year, much of this cost is recovered by increasing the price of the goods we buy.
 Tesco and McDonald's staff in Accrington have been abused by a gang of youths who have left a trail of destruction in their wake |  A perverted man who snapped up a young woman’s skirt was caught by fellow shoppers who stopped him leaving the store |  The force has released descriptions of the men and urged anyone who could help detectives identify them to come forward |
|---|---|---|
 The pair burst into an off-licence on Great Station Road in Stretford where they threatened staff before grabbing bundles of cash that were being delivered to an ATM |  A shoplifter punched a shop worker in the face twice after he dared to challenge the thug for trying to pinch a phone charger from the shelves of his store |  The offence came two weeks after Eden, 41, was banned from entering shops in Blackburn town centre following a spate of shoplifting offences |
 The robber targeted the Select Convenience Store on Brook Street at about 6pm on Monday (November 29) while a second man stood in the doorway |  The CBO was granted after police officers applied to the courts to raise concerns about his prolific offending and violence towards retail staff in the town |  The 25-year-old man pushed a staff member out of the way as he ran out of the shop, causing her to fall and bang her head |
 The thief, along with two others, had stolen wine from the Co-op store in Birmingham Road, Wylde Green in Sutton Coldfield at around 7.45am on Friday, November 12 |  A gang of youths turned violent when they were caught stealing e-cigarettes from a village shop |  Bedfordshire man has been handed a prison sentence |