Scarborough named as one of the shoplifting hotspots
Scarborough has been named as one of the worst shoplifting hotspots in the county.
Scarborough had the second highest shoplifting rate – the number of incidents as a percentage of the population for the area – out of the 17 Yorkshire areas, with 967 reported incidents.
This was up 14% on the 2015 figure of 848.
The locations in Scarborough with the highest number of shoplifting incidents were the shopping area around Westborough, the Brunswick Shopping Centre, Sainsbury’s in Falsgrave Road, and the shops around Market Street.
When weighted by population, Doncaster had the highest shoplifting levels in the region, with Wakefield in third place.
Linda Firth from LoveMyVouchers.co.uk, which carried out the research, said, “Shoplifting doesn’t just affect the retailers, it also affects consumers as the losses are typically recouped through higher retail prices.
“With such a high portion of the population already struggling to make ends meet, the affect of increasing retail prices to account for the costs of shoplifting could have a significant impact on budgets.”
The total number of shoplifting incidents in England and Wales during 2016 was up 7.6% from the previous year, with the recorded figure from January to December standing at 362,499.