Store theft suspects to face private court cases
MORE suspects are appearing in court as frustration at the failure of police to act is driving an increase in private prosecutions.
Career criminal Nicholas Richards, who stole a £170 bottle of Gucci perfume, was hauled before court after the Met Police failed to charge the offender.
He pleaded guilty to shoplifting at Medway magistrates court in March. He is due to be sentenced on September 4.
The charge was brought to court by TM Eye, the parent company of My Local Bobby, which provides private security.
Detained
Richards was detained in the Boots store in London’s Piccadilly on July 4 last year by an MLB officer who was wearing a body camera.
Now, an alleged pickpocket and 15 people accused of shoplifting will be hauled before magistrates after TM Eye obtained CCTV footage of the alleged thefts, and witness statements, which it says support its cases.
Only one in 80 thefts reported to police results in a suspect being charged.
David McKelvey, a former Met Police detective chief inspector and founder of TM Eye, told how it had launched the prosecution service after frustration with the police’s refusal to prosecute shoplifters his officers caught.
He said: “The police would either not turn up or when they did, they literally took the handcuffs off the shoplifters, told them not to be a naughty boy, and not to do it again.
“Within hours, those people were committing offences in a different shop or even the same shop.We decided that if we could get a name and address and sufficient evidence, we will not waste the police’s time, and will mount the prosecution. In reality, it works.
“Police have moved away from these prolific offences, so called low-level offending. That’s now been cut by 60 to 80 per cent.We are giving the retail outlets another option.”
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse is to ask chief constables to work with businesses to clamp down on shoplifting and violence towards staff.