The Thames Valley police boss has hit back at Green Party leader Zack Polanski after he said some people in poverty may have no option but to shoplift.
Mr Polanski, 42, told the BBC that Britain was ‘criminalising poverty and criminalising inequality’ and argued that some people steal because they have no other option.
He said he himself would consider shoplifting if he could not find a way to earn money or feed his family.
But Matthew Barber, the Conservative police and crime commissioner for the Thames Valley, dismissed the remarks as ‘complete nonsense,’ insisting shoplifting is theft.
Speaking at a meeting of the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel, he said too many people already see shop theft as a victimless crime.
He warned that shop staff are often victims themselves and reminded the public that the law allows people to use reasonable force to prevent a crime from taking place.
Mr Barber said: “There is, sadly I think, a wider attitude out there from some members of the public who don’t see this as their problem. They see Tesco, Sainsbury’s and all the others as big corporate giants who can afford to take the loss.
“Some of them even use rhetoric suggesting that Tesco is the criminal for charging that much for a jar of coffee.
“I saw the leader of the Green Party in the press last week, saying we should have sympathy for people who steal from large stores because they can’t afford the goods. That is complete nonsense – it is theft.
“My point about having a robust society where we take responsibility does not mean, and I said this at the time, that people should put themselves in undue danger.”
The commissioner added that his comments were not meant to suggest that everyone should intervene in dangerous situations, but that the public’s attitude towards shoplifting needed to change.
He added: “I find the argument around this, when it relates to shoplifting, quite interesting — because so many people apparently see it as a victimless crime.”
It comes as Office for National Statistics data showed shoplifting reached a record last month of 530,643 offences reported to police in the year to March, a 20 per cent on the previous year’s total of 444,022.
That amounts to more than 10,000 thefts a week, or 1,454 a day the highest level since records began in 2003.
In 2023/24, shoplifting cost UK retailers £2.2 billion in losses, rising to £4.2 billion when crime prevention once crime prevention costs were included.