Police chiefs have insisted a centralised unit established earlier this year is beginning to ‘turn the tide’ against prolific shoplifters who steal for organised criminals.
The team at Operation Opal have identified 152 people involved in organised crime in just the first three months of operation, The Times reported.
It comes as police forces across the UK have come under fire from members of the public over a lack of enforcement against shoplifting.
The team collect and analyse CCTV footage, as well as crime reports, dashcams and other evidence from all 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Among the serial offenders was a Romanian man who arrived in the UK last year and within 12 months stole £60,000 worth of products from Boots.
Alexandru-Iulian Dima, 25, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to 32 shoplifting offences.
Home Office officials are now in the process of securing a deportation order to return him to Romania.
Footage from South Wales Police shows Alexandru-Iulian Dima, 25, putting items into his bag before walking out the store
Footage shows the moment Dima was arrested by South Wales Police in a nearby car park
Alexandru-Iulian Dima, 25, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to 32 shoplifting offences
Almost 444,000 shoplifting offences were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months
Dima was tracked down by the team at Operation Opal who identified similar patterns to his shoplifting and alerted South Wales Police of his whereabouts.
Officers at South Wales Police then mounted a sting operation, believing their town would soon be targeted by a travelling criminal.
Staff at the Boots store in Pontypridd spotted Dima inside their shop and alerted police using a radio system used by retailers across the town which gives them direct access to patrolling officers.
Dima made a run for it but officers caught him in a nearby car park.
Pontypridd officer, PC Liam Noyce: ‘We looked at intel around his offending and chose the day we believed he’d come to town.
‘Low and behold, we had the call from staff at Boots and we arrested him, bringing an end to the campaign of crime committed in towns and cities the length and breadth of the UK.
‘We understand how vital retailers both large and small are to the town and are determined and committed to ensure they are protected from criminality.’
Alex Goss, assistant chief constable at Merseyside Police and the NPCC’s lead for retail crime, told The Times: ‘This renewed focus, working alongside Opal’s highly effective intelligence work…is showing a marked improvement in our response, dealing robustly with offenders and supporting retailers of all sizes.’
A shoplifter empties the shelves of a Greggs store in south east London into a giant holdall in July
Phone footage from July shows young shoplifters battling past staff to steal trainers from a Nike shop in the shadows of Wembley Stadium
Stephanie Coombes, head of intelligence at Opal added: ‘Opal has been carrying out this role for other crime types for a number of years and we have seen significant successes from having a national overview of what’s happening in the organised crime world.’
MailOnline revealed in July that a joint operation between the police and 15 of the biggest retailers had established that a quarter of all shoplifting in England and Wales is being carried out by criminal gangs.
A taskforce, known as Project Pegasus, has sifted through thousands of hours of CCTV and bodycam footage, as well as testimonies from staff to create a ‘shoplifting map’.
After two months of analysis, including use of facial recognition software, the taskforce discovered that the crime wave is being turbo-charged by as few as 12 gangs.
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Britain is currently in the midst of a shoplifting crisis, as police figures recently showed offences have soared by 30 per cent in a year to the highest level in two decades.
Almost 444,000 crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months.
This is the highest figure since records began in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.
But industry figures say underreporting means shoplifting is even more endemic than currently thought, with many store owners not bothering to report offences to overwhelmed police and criminal gangs operating without any fear of being caught.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, Director, Centre for Retail Research, said the rise of shoplifting was being driven by the perception that it was a risk-free crime.
Footage filmed in July shows a group of men brazenly grabbing goods from a Boots store in north London before loading them into bags in front of shocked shoppers
He told MailOnline: ‘At one time, shoplifting used to be a sort of craft where people didn’t want to get caught because they knew they’d be trouble, but now people don’t even bother because there’s a perception nothing much will happen to you.
‘A lot of retail crime now is organised, with people stealing large quantities of products like alcohol, meat and designer clothes. They are linked to other criminals who sell it on elsewhere.
‘The fact thefts below £200 are not pursued and there are a lot of demands on officers mean retailers have found it very difficult to get the kind of support they require.
‘Meanwhile, managers have become increasingly concerned about the violence that apprehending shoplifters can involve so are telling their employees not to risk it.
‘So you’ve got two issues – shoplifting being partly decriminalised and the fact the police are too busy, then retailers telling shop staff not to intervene.
Professor Bamfield suggested the latest police figures may actually underplay the seriousness of the situation due to underreporting.
‘Shops are rationing their use of police, which means offences are going unreported,’ he said. ‘I spoke to one retailer who said police had told them only to report two shoplifting offences a day because they don’t have enough time.’
The retail expert suggested the only way to tackle the epidemic was to make it a priority for law enforcement.
‘Shoplifting is often an individual’s way to becoming a serious criminal so if you stop them at 15 or 16 that may get them off that path,’ he said.
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