Eight years on from the worst expertise of her profession Natalie Lightfoot remains to be attempting to heal. She misplaced £35,000 in two raids on her comfort retailer within the area of 20 days and suffered post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
That resulted in her shedding the kid she was carrying.
Her confidence was misplaced too. For a time she was too fearful to open her store on her personal.
‘My entire world fell aside,’ she advised a bunch of Scottish politicians just a few days in the past. ‘And to this present day the ache by no means goes away. At this level I wished to stop however, as an unbiased retailer, this isn’t an choice.’
So Ms Lightfoot nonetheless owns and runs the shop in Glasgow’s Baillieston which she purchased as an bold 24-year-old with a first-class honours diploma in enterprise administration and organisation.
Natalie Lightfoot says shoplifters have gotten more and more brazen
Now 42, she has realized {qualifications} and enterprise nous rely for little within the face of a rising tide of retail crime and violence variously described by merchants as ‘an epidemic’ and ‘anarchy’.
MSPs sat in considerate silence as Ms Lightfoot schooled them on the realities that store house owners and employees all through Scotland are going through.
‘You can have heard a pin drop after I was speaking,’ she later advised the Mail. ‘I’m not a public speaker, however I believe they wanted to listen to it.’
The mom of three described one other dismal day when she watched two males march into her retailer, elevate a crate of lager every, and stroll out once more. She was seven months pregnant on the time however nonetheless gave chase.
As she shouted at one of many males to return the stolen items to the store, she stated he stopped, turned to her and screamed: ‘Keep the f*** away from me or I’ll kill you.’
She performed the MSPs movies captured by her 11 CCTV cameras of thieves serving to themselves to items off her cabinets at Londis Solo Comfort. Some are furtive; others brazen. Violence, threats and abuse might comply with when they’re challenged.
‘Right here’s a offender in motion’ she stated as she rolled her first clip for the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group for unbiased comfort shops. ‘There’s no actual consequence – that’s why they repeat offend.’
She added: ‘What am I purported to do? I contact the police after discovering the theft however nothing occurs. I spend hours trawling CCTV footage to burn, I organize and provides my statements. However backside line basically [is] my cash is gone. It makes me really feel so indignant; it feels private. The very first thing I say to shoplifters caught is you’re stealing off my children. I ask you the way is that this any totally different from you having your purse or pockets stolen?’
It was Co-op operations director Kate Graham who, earlier this month, warned that shops have been descending into anarchy.
Thieves plunder gadgets from shops protected within the information there shall be few penalties
Shoplifting in Scotland has rocketed by 35 per cent to a complete of 38,674 circumstances in 2023-24
She advised BBC Radio Scotland: ‘What we’re seeing is blatant looting – individuals simply coming in with a big bag and taking what they need as a result of they’re recognising the shortage of consequence. We’re seeing repeat offenders and we’re seeing prolific shoplifting. Individuals are stealing to order so that is completely not concerning the cost-of-living disaster.’
Figures launched by the Co-op this week present the price of shoplifting in its shops has surged by nearly a fifth to £40 million within the first half of the yr alone. 4 Co-op workers a day are attacked.
Based on Scottish Authorities’s personal figures, the crime rocketed by 35 per cent in a single yr to a complete of 38,674 circumstances in 2023-24. The determine represents a 41 per cent rise on a decade in the past – but solely contains incidents reported to the police.
Many shopowners have now given up telling the police about them – believing nothing shall be achieved.
The Scottish Grocer’s Federation places the price of retail crime throughout the land at £62.9 million for 2023-24 and says 9 out of 10 shops are reporting violence in opposition to workers a minimum of as soon as every week.
The deterrent is all however non-existent – some extent which arises time and again within the Scottish retail trade. The justice system is so weakened beneath the SNP that shoplifting has been ‘decriminalised by stealth,’ stated Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay.
In contrast to many store house owners, Ms Lightfoot nonetheless experiences each incident to Police Scotland.
She advised the Mail: ‘They’re sincere with us that their arms are tied.
‘They arrive in and we report it, and we see of their eyes that we’re losing their time, which is why plenty of shopkeepers don’t report it.’
As for the 2021 Holyrood legislation making it a statutory offence to assault, threaten or abuse workers, ‘nobody is absolutely getting prosecuted on it,’ stated Ms Lightfoot. ‘It’s simply one other legislation that’s sitting there unused.’
If the results for the criminals are minimal, they are often life-changing for store house owners and workers.
In April 2016, Ms Lightfoot opened her enterprise to search out it had been raided in a single day. The thieves, believed to be a part of an organised crime gang, cleaned out the store’s tobacco provides, broke into the protected and stole money, took lottery scratchcards and, earlier than they left, ripped out the CCTV exhausting drive.
Ms Lightfoot, who relocated from Bedford to run the shop, advised MSPs: ‘The insurance coverage didn’t make a pay-out. I needed to borrow cash from household to assist us hold going. In a matter of weeks I had gone from what was an incredible state of affairs and having fun with the results of my exhausting work to shedding what felt like all the things.
But worse was to return. She made big outlays on further safety measures which took 21 days to instal absolutely. But on day 20 it was raided once more – the brand new curler shutter she had simply put in peeled again like the highest of a can of tuna.
‘They knew what awaited them on the opposite aspect, so that they have been decided,’ she stated. This time they took extra tobacco together with luggage stuffed with spirits.
As MSPs watched, Ms Lightfoot rolled the CCTV tape of this second raid, which once more was not lined by insurance coverage because the safety set up was not fairly full.
Nobody was delivered to justice for both raid.
She stated: ‘I had misplaced in complete round £35k on account of harm, inventory and money loss over the 2 break ins. I suffered extreme PTSD from opening the shop and simply doing my job. Throughout the two break-ins my husband was made redundant and I used to be the only breadwinner.
‘I had a three-year-old woman I needed to hold going for. However the stress from being answerable for everybody’s job, saving my enterprise, paying all my payments and getting myself out of debt lastly got here out in my physique. I used to be blessed to fall pregnant with my little woman’s sibling, however the stress was an excessive amount of, and I miscarried.’
All through her makes an attempt to heal, store crime has carried on unabated. Behind the alarming statistics, actual lives blighted; workers residing in concern.
Far more just lately, considered one of her store assistants was attacked by two sisters who had been requested to go away as a result of workers suspected they have been planning to rob prospects of their purses or wallets.
‘They adopted a workers member and charged at her while she was ready on a bus dwelling,’ Ms Lightfoot advised MSPs. ‘Who wants this from their job?’
That evening, the worker rang to say she may not work within the evenings. ‘I can’t do that any extra,’ she advised her boss.
Ms Lightfoot concluded: ‘Crime has vastly affected me and my enterprise over the past 17 years. The rationale I wished to talk at the moment is to precise and convey precisely how a lot.
‘So many injustices served. Eight years later, and I don’t assume I’m healed. There’s extra than simply monetary loss to the crime we face as unbiased retailers. Similar to the postmasters, it impacts our private lives in irreversible methods and this must be recognised.’
At Kat’s Nook Store in Hawick within the Scottish Borders, proprietor Kat Xmas admits she now hardly ever informs police when shoplifters strike.
That dates again to an armed theft just a few years in the past when she was held at knifepoint by a younger lady. She referred to as the police and so they arrived in numbers. Inside hours she was arrested.
‘The subsequent day, she walked previous the store, so she was set free,’ stated Ms Xmas. ‘That form of set the scene for me. It doesn’t matter what they do. They will maintain a knife to you, they will attempt to stab you, however the subsequent day they’ll be out on the road.
‘I don’t really feel it’s definitely worth the police’s time both as a result of what are they going to do? I do know high-quality effectively myself that nothing goes to be achieved.’
Among the many store thieves contributing to the startling surge within the crime are susceptible girls and kids trafficked from Jap Europe particularly to shoplift.
RAC has been monitoring the Glasgow-based group since 2019 and Ms Fraser confirmed it stays operational, shoplifting to order throughout the UK.
She stated it was clear from video footage captured in shops that they have been utilizing ‘very younger kids’.
‘They’re nonetheless very energetic and so they’re promoting inventory on at native markets. A few of it is rather excessive worth inventory. Two of them walked out with a TV at some point.’
Though many have been arrested for shoplifting, they’re shortly launched – particularly if they’re kids – and the cycle continues.
Certainly, many assert that shoplifting is rocketing partly on account of the child gloves with which Police Scotland should deal with younger offenders.
Present Scottish Authorities steerage makes no bones about its agenda ‘to maintain kids out of the justice system.’
Underneath 18s have further rights in police custody and sentencing of these beneath 24 should recognise that their culpability could also be decrease than an older particular person as a result of their brains are nonetheless creating.
For Ms Fraser all of it results in the conclusion the justice system is ‘a multitude’.
She stated: ‘I’m fairly blissful to say that as a result of we all know some defendants have possibly bought 40 circumstances and so they’re nonetheless on the market. Incarceration isn’t the reply to all the things, nonetheless it’s the reply for a lot of of them. When you’ve gotten somebody who’s violent and makes use of weapons they need to be in a safe place.’
A Police Scotland spokesman advised the Mail: ‘Whereas we’ve seen a rise in experiences of thefts by shoplifting, there has additionally been a rise in detection of such a crime. Fees have been introduced in almost half of all reported incidents.
‘We work carefully with the retail and enterprise sectors to discourage, stop and examine retail crime. The place we establish companies that are being focused by shoplifters, we’ve educated officers who can attend and perform safety surveys and provide recommendation round prevention.’
The Scottish Authorities stated it recognises the ‘important hurt’ retail crime and inspired shops to report all of them to the police.
A spokesman added: ‘Whereas selections on policing crime are operational issues for the Chief Constable, our Finances this yr contains file police funding of £1.55 billion – a rise of £92.7 million. This can allow Police Scotland to extend officer numbers as much as round 16,500-16,600.’
The proof on the bottom is many have already given up on an efficient police response.
‘I want for harder penalties on criminals,’ stated Ms Lightfoot. ‘I want for the police to not have their arms tried in terms of shoplifters.’
Extra realistically, maybe, she is asking for a web-based portal for reporting shoplifting crimes with out involving the police within the first occasion – and grants for additional safety.
If the skinny blue line can not defend them, it appears they need to defend themselves.
