A fed up shopkeeper says he’s had enough of sitting back while criminals help themselves to his stock – and has taken matters into his own hands to protect his business.
Andrew Board, 39, who runs the Core Convenience Store in Newton Hall, Durham, has become a local have-a-go hero – chasing down thieves, physically dragging them back into the shop, and banning dozens from ever stepping foot through the door again.
After six years of running the store, the married father-of-three had reached the end of his tether at being ‘robbed blind’ while courts dish out slap on the wrist punishments to shoplifters.
His struggles are indicative of a larger shoplifting crisis which has engulfed the nation in recent years, one which policing critics have claimed makes stealing now ‘legal.’
In April this year, the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales passed half a million for the first time with an astonishing 516,971 offences logged by forces last year alone.
This was up 20 per cent from 429,873 in 2023 making it the highest figure since current police records began 22 years ago in 2003
Speaking to the , Andrew revealed he wasn’t surprised as his business is on the front line.
He revealed: ‘It’s just got worse and worse because there’s no deterrent. Crime pays at the moment.
‘The police have bent it over backwards to try and get all these criminals put before the courts, and they’re as frustrated as we are, that they’re basically just letting them off the hook.
‘They might get a caution or a rehabilitation order, but there’s very little to stop them just going out and doing it again.’
Andrew has chased suspects around the estate and recently dragged a man who swiped a crate of Fosters back into the shop.
After his brave citizen’s arrest, police arrested the thief – only to spare him prosecution and hand out a community resolution instead.
Andrew said: ‘The outcome was that he would just pay for the beer and it would be forgotten about. Despite him being on an electronic tag at the time.
‘How is that justice? What kind of message does that send if the worst-case scenario is they just have to give the stuff back?’
CCTV footage shared with Mail Online shows thieves being caught in the act – including a woman sliding tubs of Lurpak inside her coat.
Other clips show Andrew and his staff grappling with shoplifters and hauling them back into the shop to await arrest.
Shoplifting at the store – located near to Full Sutton and Frankland prisons – has become so rampant that some products have been pulled entirely.
Lurpak, Nescafe, tubs of fabric softener and even Spam have been removed after being targeted by drug addicts keen to pay off their debts.
Andrew said: ‘We had one prolific thief who was in constantly, shoving Lurpak down her coat.
‘She wears a lined coats, like a pro. She’s been in court over and over again, but not once has been gone to prison.’
The store’s banned list has grown to over 40 names. Andrew knows many having grown up and lived in the area all his life. He has chased thieves through back lanes, over fences, around the blocks.
Others are released from the nearby prisons and head straight for his shop
Andrew said: ‘There’s no stereotypical shoplifter, I’ve had eight-year-olds stealing. Middle-aged people stealing to pay drug debts. Pensioners in their eighties stuffing things down their coat.
‘There’s no set sort of character of what makes a shoplifter now.’
Andrew credits the police for trying but says officers are shackled by rules and red tape. He’s in a WhatsApp group with other retailers who track offenders and warn each other when someone’s on the move.
But police officers are not allowed to use WhatsApp. So while the group moves in real time, officers can be left catching up.
The scourge of shoplifting has taken a toll on his staff, none of whom signed up face down criminals.
Andrew said: ‘I’ve got some tools of the trade on me. I don’t give them a chance to react. I work on shock tactics.
‘I do have some restraint where it’s needed. I would only retaliate if someone was volatile with me. I’m forceful in the immediate stage, but then if someone was going to pull a scrap with me, then I would hold my own.
‘I tell the staff to challenge but only if they feel safe. Often they’ll ring me because I only live a minute away.
‘My wife knows that I can handle myself and I do have a sensible head on my shoulders. But she’s always going to worry in case anything does happen.’
Nationally, half a million shoplifting offences in England and Wales were recorded by police last year, up 20 per cent from 2023.
Andrew says shoplifting is having a major impact on small business struggling with ever-shrinking profit margins.
He said: ‘These people are stealing out of my pocket because this is my business and I won’t have it anymore.
‘Small businesses now, they’re closing left, right and centre, because all the extra expenses we’re now subject to, all the extra regulations we’re now being bound by that we’ve got to fork out our own pockets for.
‘Wages and overheads are all going up. National insurance payments have gone up.
‘So we’re being hammered left, right and centre. And now all these thieves are just coming in like it’s a free-for-all.
‘People think acquisitive crime is harmless but if I go under, then the post office in the shop goes too. The community loses out and that’s not fair.
‘Shoplifting will not go down until something in the legal system changes.’
In a Facebook post in April, the store warned: ‘We aren’t one of those large corporate stores making millions and can absorb losses due to theft. We’re a small, local, family run business that does its best to cater for the community.
‘All thefts are a theft direct from our pocket and jeopardise our ability to trade and serve our community. Because of this, we absolutely WILL protect and defend ourselves against thieves and anyone caught will be dealt with accordingly.’
A Durham Police spokeswoman said: ‘Shoplifting is a significant issue nationwide, and County Durham and Darlington is no different.
‘We take this type of offending extremely seriously and work hard to tackle the issue across our force area.
‘A large proportion of shoplifting offences are opportunistic and committed by people with drug or alcohol addictions.
‘That’s why, as a force, we must look at the bigger picture and find out why individuals offend in the first place and seek to address the underlying reasons for their offending.’