Latest news with #DameDianaJohnson
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Daily Mail
The middle class shoplifters pushing up prices for honest customers: How affluent thieves who 'feel like they're owed something' are pinching luxury goods - as retail crime soars to £2.2bn a year
Brazen middle class shoplifters have been blamed for pushing up prices for honest customers amid a shoplifting epidemic that has seen retail crime soar to £2.2billion a year. Dame Diana Johnson, Labour's policing and crime minister, has issued a stark warning to wealthier thieves, insisting 'there will be consequences' regardless of their background. It comes amid a rise in well-heeled customers increasingly pinching goods from shops - with businesses' claiming they feel 'entitled' to it. Richard Fowler, the head of security at upmarket health food brand Planet Organic, last year coined the new band of shoplifters as 'posh totty' types who feel they can get away with stealing because they are regulars. A wave of shamed middle class shoplifters have increasingly spoken out - typically under anonymity - to come clean about how and why they became addicted to stealing. Until they were caught, that is. One mother, who worked in a well-paid IT job and lived in a comfortable three-bedroom home, told the Mail: There was absolutely no reason for me to steal.' But the self-confessed middle class shoplifter, who was eventually caught after stealing £1,500 of goods over the 12 months, added: 'Breaking the law felt dangerous and risky, but it also felt good.' Filled with determination to crack down on Britain's spiralling shoplifting epidemic, Dame Diana told the Telegraph: 'It's a crime. If you're middle class, or whichever class you want to determine that you are, it's a crime. That is just not acceptable because we all know that people end up paying higher prices if people are stealing.' In a bid to combat the crime crippling the retail sector, the Government is planning to invest £200million into neighbourhood policing and has vowed to make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence. It comes after the Government also axed previous legislation that made stealing goods worth less than £200 a 'summary-only' offence. A 'Fusion Cell' programme for sharing intelligence on retail crime and thieves is also in the works. Incidents of retail crime hit their highest level on record in the year leading up to August 2024, growing by more than 50 per cent to more than 2,000 incidents a day, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Graham Wynn, a director at the BRC, told the Telegraph: 'The cost of theft has also risen to over £2.2bn a year, pushing up prices for honest shoppers and damaging the customer experience.' While organised gangs have been held responsible for pinching luxury goods and selling them on for profit, a new culprit has been increasingly blamed for contributing to the crisis. Retail bosses have increasingly sought to raise the alarm over shoplifting among the middle classes. Archie Norman, chairman of Marks & Spencer, warned two years ago: 'It's too easy to say it's a cost of living problem. Some of this shoplifting is by gangs. Then you get the middle class. 'With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think: 'This didn't scan properly, or it's very difficult to scan these things through, and I shop here all the time. It's not my fault, I'm owed it'.' Last summer, Mr Fowler, who manages security Planet Organic's Chiswick branch, told the BBC the upmarket chain loses a staggering £900,000 a year across its nine London stores from stealing. He explained: 'We've got our homeless... Then we have what I would call the posh totty people. 'They shop in Planet Organic on a daily basis, they spend a lot of money with our business. '[They think] ''Today I'm a little bit short of money, so I'm entitled to steal something''.' In March 2022, Nina Tiara, thought to be Britain's most prolific middle-class shoplifter, was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail. To her neighbours Tiara seemed the picture of respectability. She drove a gleaming Mercedes and lived in a neat, £550,000 detached house in a Wiltshire hamlet - but much of her lifestyle was funded by crime. Since Tiara was caught, other middle class shoplifters have come forward, crippled by guilt. One 53-year-old woman, married with two children in their 20s, previously told the Mail: 'The thrill lies in getting away with it, I certainly don't do it for financial gain because I don't need to.' Explaining how she first came swept up by the world of shoplifting, the retired executive office manager said: 'I'd gone to collect some pre-ordered items but I also needed to buy a £150 power drill on the day. 'I suddenly had this compulsion to peel the 'already paid for' sticker from one of my pre-ordered items and put it onto the power drill instead. To avert suspicion, I picked up a few bedding plants costing around £5, which I put through the till. 'My heart was hammering, and I fully expected to feel the hand of a security guard on my shoulder. But by the time I got to the car, I felt such a buzz. I couldn't believe I'd got away with it. I can explain it only as a sudden, impetuous two fingers up to the fact that life was - and still is - very stressful.' Part of the power she felt, she admitted, was that nobody would ever have her down as a shoplifter. She's bright, articulate, well-spoken, takes pride in her appearance and makes a point of chatting to shop staff as she goes about her business. 'I've witnessed shoplifters running out of the supermarkets with staff chasing after them,' she adds. 'I get away with it because I'm the calm, middle-aged, middle-class woman who looks so normal and respectable. I've seen other women like me fill up their trolleys and walk brazenly past security staff without paying for a thing.' Another mother, operating in the US, admitted to brazenly shoplifting in her affluent suburb – and no one ever said a thing. That was until she left a store and approached her car when a male voice behind her said: 'Excuse me, can I pull you to one side?' She recalled to the Mail: 'Why would they suspect me? I appeared to be an ordinary middle-class mother-of-two. I earned a decent salary working in IT and lived in a comfortable three-bedroom home with my family. There was absolutely no reason for me to steal. 'I've since learned that I am part of a wave of so-called 'middle-class shoplifters'. She said she didn't seek out high-end items, rather items such as a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, some wholemeal wraps or bags of salads. The well-heeled shoplifter believes the thrill she got from 'breaking the rules' stemmed from her experience in lockdown. She explained: 'I felt trapped at home. I missed playgroups and coffee mornings so much. I felt flat and miserable. 'We got through those two years, but as life slowly returned to normal – and I cared for my new baby – my urge to steal started. 'The thrilling tingle of a successful theft was like a drug. When my mood was low, I could steal items two or three times a week, usually from my local mini-supermarket.' In April, the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales passed half a million for the first time. An astonishing 516,971 offences were logged by forces last year, up 20 per cent from 429,873 in 2023. The figure is the highest since current police records began 22 year ago in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Shoplifting offences have been at record levels for the past two years and have seen a 'sharp rise' since the pandemic, the ONS said. In March, the BRC said the cost of retail crime has soared to a staggering £4.2billion last year - including £2.2billion from shoplifting and another £1.8billion spent on crime prevention measures such as CCTV, anti-theft devices and body worn cameras. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: 'Seeing incidents of theft or abuse has become an all-too-common part of the shopping experience for many people. 'While an incident can be over in a matter of seconds, it can have life-long consequences on those who experience it, making them think twice about visiting their local high streets. 'Criminals are becoming bolder and more aggressive, and decisive action is needed to put an end to it.'
Telegraph
15-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour blames middle-class shoplifters for pushing up prices
Middle-class shoplifters are responsible for pushing up prices on the high street, the policing and crime minister has claimed. Dame Diana Johnson has vowed to punish wealthier thieves as part of her crackdown on retail crime, insisting 'there will be consequences' for shoplifters, regardless of their background. She said: 'It's a crime. If you're middle class, or whichever class you want to determine that you are, it's a crime. That is just not acceptable because we all know that people end up paying higher prices if people are stealing.' Her comments come as Britain's retailers battle a shoplifting epidemic that is costing them billions of pounds each year. In a bid to address the issue, the Government plans to invest £200m into neighbourhood policing, and has said it will make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence. It has also scrapped previous legislation that made stealing goods worth less than £200 a 'summary-only' low-level offence. It also plans to develop a 'Fusion Cell' programme for sharing intelligence on retail crime and its perpetrators. Incidents of retail crime hit their highest level on record in the year leading up to August 2024, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), growing by more than 50pc to hit more than 2,000 incidents a day. Graham Wynn, a director at the BRC, said: 'The cost of theft has also risen to over £2.2bn a year, pushing up prices for honest shoppers and damaging the customer experience.' Much of the crime wave has been blamed on organised crime gangs who steal high-value goods such as spirits and meat before selling them on for a profit. Middle-class crime However, retail industry bosses have increasingly raised the alarm over shoplifting among the middle classes. Archie Norman, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, first highlighted it as a problem two years ago: 'It's too easy to say it's a cost of living problem. Some of this shoplifting is by gangs. Then you get the middle class. 'With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think: 'This didn't scan properly, or it's very difficult to scan these things through, and I shop here all the time. It's not my fault, I'm owed it'.' Last month, John Nussbaum, director of retail at Kingdom Security, said some shoplifters believed they were 'cheating the system' and did not necessarily see themselves as criminals. When asked what her message to shoplifters would be, Dame Diana said: 'It's a crime. You are committing a crime. 'During the disorder last year, I remember in Hull, there were young women coming out of Lush because they'd been into Lush to loot, and they were coming out with boxes of toiletries from Lush, thinking that was perfectly fine. 'There were no consequences. We have to get back to the fact that if you steal, if you commit a crime, there will be consequences.' She also called on landlords not to allow the selling of stolen goods in their venues, amid reports that some pubs were being used by criminals to do so. She said: 'If you're a pub down the road, then selling that is not part of what you should be doing to protect and support your community.'
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Yahoo
Commuters searched at station as part of large scale police crackdown
Brighton railway station became the focus of a targeted police crackdown on drug crime observed by the policing minister. The gateway to the city was bustling with officers taking part in the county lines operation. The large police response saw several people searched, with dog units sniffing out drugs and a knife arch being used. Watching the large-scale operation was policing minister Dame Diana Johnson. Read more Driver went wrong way around roundabout during 15 minute police chase Man arrested after woman sexually assaulted while walking down road Several police officers assaulted during town centre disturbance Speaking to The Argus, she explained the importance of tackling county lines drug trafficking head-on while while ensuring the protection of vulnerable individuals. She said: "The key thing I have seen today at Brighton station is that the police cannot deal with this on their own. "For example the voluntary sector, who can get alongside young people; work with them and provide the support they need. "Dealing with county lines has to have all of the key partners together working on behalf of safeguarding young people." Throughout the week, local officers increased patrols and stop-and-search operations around Brighton station. (Image: Newsquest) County lines describes the exploitation of young and vulnerable people to transport and sell drugs across regions as part of organised crime networks. Sussex Police and British Transport Police were two of many forces up and down the country which took part in the recent week of action aimed to tackle the issue. They heavily increased patrols and stop-and-search operations around the station and across Brighton and Hove during the intensification week, which began on Monday, June 23. Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson was present at the station to observe the operation. (Image: Newsquest) 1,965 arrests were made nationwide as part of the week of action with local figures set to be released. Dame Diana also stressed the importance of prevention work alongside police enforcement to stop young people from becoming involved in these dangerous networks. She said: "We want to go after those who are supplying drugs but we want to be safeguarding those young people and children who have been exploited by criminal gangs. "That's what this is about, looking after those young people and getting them away from that exploitation." Drug detection dogs were present for the operation. (Image: Newsquest) In a message aimed at criminals, British Transport Police Superintendent for Covert Policing and County Lines David Udomhiaye said: "We will find those that exploit the vulnerable. 'Our main focus is treating children as victims not criminals; safeguarding and prevention is our main focus." He added: "Sometimes you may see us working, but we also have undercover officers and we use a number of tactics you might not see. "I would say to those that are involved in this kind of activity, that we are always there working to catch them." A knife arch was part of the operation. During the operation, a young person was taken aside for questioning. A specialist organisation who provide support to children and young people affected by County Lines activity, Catch22, was present to offer support. The organisation help to make sure those identified as victims can process their experiences and are protected from any future harm. The young person was released by the police but had the case been taken any further, Catch22 would have been available to provide support if needed. Catch22's senior service manager Johnny Bolderson said: "Exploitation is not a slow thing, it happens over a number of years. "It is really difficult for young people and children to identify the exploitation placed on them. "To identify they are actually a victim is difficult. "So, our place in this is to engage a young person at a reachable moment where we can make a real, serious engagement with one-to-one intervention or our rescue service." He explained: "We have a rescue service that will travel and go and pick up a young person who has been found in a county lines situation. "We return them back to a safe address and while we do that we talk to them and make them feel safe. "We do a number of rescues in the Sussex areas."
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Cannabis 'is worse for our society than heroin,' police tsars say - as they demand government upgrade it to a class A drug
More than a quarter of police and crime commissioners have written to the policing minister calling for cannabis to be upgraded to a class A substance, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In the stark letter to Dame Diana Johnson MP, seen exclusively by this newspaper, 14 police chiefs claim the effect of the drug in society 'may be far worse' than heroin. They warn that 'we cannot allow this to become the Britain of the future'. And they also hit out at the recent report by the London Commission – backed by Labour London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan – which suggested decriminalising small amounts of cannabis, which is currently a class B drug. 'Heroin can kill quickly but the cumulative effect of cannabis in our society may be far worse,' the letter states. It adds that class A status – which comes with potential life sentences for suppliers – was the way forward 'rather than effective decriminalising'. And renowned psychiatrist Professor Sir Robin Murray, of King's College London, told The Mail on Sunday that the UK may now be 'at the beginnings of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis' which could overwhelm NHS mental health services. The commissioners also pointed to other countries where laws are laxer, warning that the US has seen 'unofficial pharmacies' selling cannabis and the powerful opiate fentanyl alongside one another, while Portugal has been forced to consider reversing drug decriminalisation after a 30-fold increase in psychosis. They said cannabis's effects were so devastating it had 'more birth defects associated with it than thalidomide' – the notorious morning sickness drug which caused deformities among thousands of babies in the 1950s and 1960s. Their warnings came after Marcus Monzo, 37, was last week found guilty of 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin's murder after he attacked him with a samurai sword in Hainault, east London, while in a state of cannabis-induced psychosis. David Sidwick, Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, said cannabis legislation was 'clearly not fit for purpose' and likened it to 'using a machete for brain surgery'. He added the public wanted to see 'tougher measures' for cannabis possession because it was a gateway to harder drugs. His Devon and Cornwall counterpart Alison Hernandez said: 'The fact that we've been so blase about cannabis in society means that people think it's legal and normal, and it's not. 'We've got to show them that it's not, and the way you do that is to be quite fierce in your enforcement arrangements.' Latest figures show three in four people caught with cannabis avoid appearing in court, while 87 per cent of children and young people in alcohol and drug treatment cited cannabis dependency, compared to 39 per cent for alcohol. Stuart Reece, an Australian clinician and cannabis researcher quoted in the letter said more than 90 per cent of hard drug addicts he encountered had started with cannabis. He said pro-cannabis campaigners had the view it was 'my right to use drugs and destroy my body and you will pay for it through the NHS'. Dr Karen Randall, a physician in the US state of Colorado where recreational cannabis was legalised in 2012, said healthcare costs linked to the drug are 'exorbitant'. A Home Office spokesman said: 'We work with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, ensure more people receive timely treatment and support, and make our streets and communities safer.'
The Independent
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
MPs grant pubs extra time to open if England or Wales reach Women's Euros semis
Pubs have been granted extra time to stay open if the Lionesses reach this year's Uefa Women's Euros semi-finals, MPs have agreed. Bars will be allowed to sell alcohol until 1am, if either England or Wales – or both – take part in the European Championship semi-finals or finals next month. Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said venues 'stand to benefit' from the temporary later closing time, pushed back from the usual 11pm cut-off, and Conservative MP Andrew Snowden warned his father might 'disown' him, had his party not backed the Government's proposal. But if neither team manages to reach the final stages, pubs will have to stick to their ordinary licence conditions. The semi-finals take place on July 22 and 23, with the final on July 27. Dame Diana said this year's championship in Switzerland, which kicks off on July 2, was a 'prestigious tournament'. She said a Government order paved the way for a 'temporary extension of licensing hours across England and Wales should either England or Wales or both progress to the semi-finals or the final of the competition'. MPs laughed when she added: 'I have to say, from my limited following of football, it seems like the women's teams have a reputation for doing far better than our male teams.' A Home Office consultation found 87% of respondents backed the proposed extension of licensing hours for the semi-finals, dropping to 84% for the final, Dame Diana told the Commons. Publicans 'stand to benefit from this modest extension which would allow them to accommodate increased demand during these high-profile fixtures', she said, and added: 'I fully accept that the hospitality sector has had a difficult time over the last few years and this is a helpful measure. 'It is right to acknowledge as well that police representatives have expressed some concerns regarding the potential for increased crime and disorder. 'Now, whilst operational decisions on deployment and resourcing are a matter for individual forces, I am confident that appropriate measures will be taken to mitigate any risks, as has happened in similar cases. 'Notably, there have been no significant incidents of large-scale disorder linked to previous licensing extensions, which I think is testament to the professionalism of our police service, to whom we owe our thanks.' The move to extend licensing hours applies only to alcohol, and does not apply to off licences and supermarkets. 'If neither England nor Wales reach the semi-finals, the proposed extension will not apply on July 22 or 23. Similarly, if one or both teams reach the semi-finals but do not progress to the final, normal licensing hours will apply on July 27,' Dame Diana warned. Mr Snowden, the MP for Fylde, said his party was 'delighted to support these temporary licensing changes'. He added: 'To be fair, I don't think I would have much choice on this matter, as if I ever stood at this despatch box and opposed more time in the pub to watch football, my dad would probably disown me.' Mr Snowden told MPs there was 'no reason why we should doubt' that the reigning champions, England, will reach the semi-finals. 'We are the defending champions of the Women's Uefa cup after England's magnificent performance at the 2022 tournament hosted here in the UK at Wembley,' he told MPs. 'The final saw a 2-1 victory, and of course in football, it was made all the sweeter by beating the Germans. 'So this is a fantastic time to support your local as well as your national.' MPs called 'aye' to approve the extension. Ministers can extend licences for events 'of exceptional international, national, or local significance', but must ask for MPs' permission. Labour MP for Wrexham Andrew Ranger has called for a tweak in the law, so that ministers can extend licensing hours without the need for a vote in Parliament. Dame Diana said the Government has supported his Licensing Hours Extension Bill, but added it would not clear both the Commons and the Lords in time for the Women's Euros. She said agreeing to Thursday's order – originally laid on May 15 – without a division reinforced 'the argument that debating such measures may not represent the most effective use of parliamentary time'. England and Wales face each other on July 13, with both home nations in Group D alongside France and the Netherlands. The Lionesses will face France on July 5 when Wales will play the Netherlands. On July 9, England will play the Netherlands while Wales face France. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate licensing rules.
