{"id":235384,"date":"2023-09-10T02:19:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T02:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=235384"},"modified":"2023-09-10T02:19:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T02:19:30","slug":"shopkeeper-might-have-to-close-his-business-due-to-shoplifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/shopkeeper-might-have-to-close-his-business-due-to-shoplifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Shopkeeper might have to CLOSE his business due to shoplifting"},"content":{"rendered":"
Shopkeeper Saba Mahesh estimates he’s losing about \u00a3200 a day from shoplifting.<\/p>\n
He has run four small stores in Sheerness, Kent, for almost 20 years \u2013 but is now considering the closure of one as it loses more money to theft than it makes in profits every day.<\/p>\n
He blames adults and ‘out-of-control teenagers’ who, he says, ‘nick anything: sweets, crisps, vaping devices, energy drinks and alcohol. It’s not people being hungry \u2013 it’s criminals.’<\/p>\n
His staff used to report thefts to the police but don’t now, as he says officers do not investigate.<\/p>\n
‘I am very angry that the police are not doing anything,’ he said.<\/p>\n
He added that shoplifting is worse during the summer and that his staff fear being attacked. He said: ‘They face all kinds of abuse. Some, who are not white, suffer racial abuse.’<\/p>\n
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Shopkeeper Saba Mahesh (pictured outside his store SS News and Wine) estimates he’s losing about \u00a3200 a day from shoplifting<\/p>\n
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SHOPLIFTERS LAUGH AS THEY FILL THEIR BAGS<\/p>\n
Thieves who steal from the convenience store in Wolverhampton where Michelle Whitehead works as a manager are so brazen they fill bags with food and walk out, laughing at staff.<\/p>\n
The 50-year-old says she used to love her job but now regularly goes home and cries after receiving abuse from thieves \u2013 who not only swear at her but throw objects, spit and threaten to beat her up.<\/p>\n
Ms Whitehead said: ‘I feel such anxiety at work \u2013 I’m thinking of leaving. Before the pandemic, thieves would steal slyly, but they now come in pairs, stuff bags full of food and walk out laughing at us.’<\/p>\n
She says some are ‘organised criminal gangs’ who, for example, pilfer ’11 packs of bacon or 12 chickens’ and sell them on. Ms Whitehead said the shoplifters know police won’t prosecute and take advantage of the fact staff have been told by bosses not to physically stop them.<\/p>\n
She explained how staff are advised that any intervention risks injury and said a colleague was sacked because he intervened in a shoplifting incident.<\/p>\n
She added: ‘Sometimes we call the police but officers usually never arrive.’<\/p>\n
Even when caught, she said thieves return to shoplift again. She said one was back in her store within 30 minutes of his guilty verdict to steal again, before he returned to court for sentencing.<\/p>\n
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Kirk Wharton is seen on CCTV stashing item in his coat in a foiled shoplifting attempt<\/p>\n
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CCTV footage of a couple who attacked a shop worker in Bristol<\/p>\n
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Thieves are targetting stores every two seconds in Britain, figures have shown<\/p>\n
‘LET-OFF’ FOR WOMAN GUILTY OF 13 THEFTS<\/p>\n
A prolific shoplifter charged with 13 separate offences during just two months escaped a jail sentence and was merely given a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) \u2013 designed to deal with persistent anti-social behaviour \u2013 which banned her from Peterborough’s main shopping centre for two years.<\/p>\n
The case of Jolene Maughan, 35, highlights what critics call ‘soft justice’ towards shoplifting, where custodial sentences are not handed down even to repeat offenders.<\/p>\n
Cambridgeshire Constabulary, which said Maughan was putting a strain on their resources, still urged the court to give her a CBO instead of a jail term.<\/p>\n
Among the charges, Maughan was found guilty of stealing an iPad worth \u00a3240, \u00a349 worth of alcohol, and meat costing \u00a360 from M&S. She also stole food and alcohol worth almost \u00a380 from Asda.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She even assaulted a security guard and threatened another. Previously, she had 19 theft and similar offences recorded against her, and had once served a week in prison for shoplifting.<\/p>\n