UK shops suffer two thefts every minute as retail thefts hit their highest level since records began.

In the year to June 2024, 469,788 crimes were recorded, up 29% on the 365,173 recorded in the previous 12 months.

It equates to an appalling 9,000 crimes per week and 1,290 per day – meaning there are two every minute for the store’s average 10-hour opening hours.

Also, the number of thefts increased by 20%, reaching 139,368 crimes, the highest number recorded since April 2002.

At the same time, robberies rose by six per cent to 81,931 in a year, and robberies involving a knife or sharp instrument also rose by 11 per cent over the period.

Police chiefs are now facing questions about policing priorities after official figures revealed almost 6,000 crimes went unsolved every day last year, with 40% of all recorded crimes going unpunished.

Almost 444,000 theft offenses were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, compared with 342,428 in the previous 12 months.

Footage filmed earlier this year shows a group of men taking goods from a Boots store in north London before bagging them in front of shocked shoppers (file photo)

The alarming figures come a year after the force made unprecedented commitments to investigate reasonable lines of inquiry in every crime and visit every broken-in house after a national ramp-up program delivered an extra 20,000 officers.

However, despite all the promises and new recruits, the latest figures suggest that thousands of people are still being denied justice every day.

According to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of theft offenses recorded by the police in England and Wales is at its highest level for 20 years.

There was a four per cent increase in overall knife crime to 50,973 offences, which is an average of 140 incidents every day.

David Spencer, Head of Crime and Justice at Policy Exchange: “Current crime figures show that the police are too often distracted from their core mission of fighting crime. For the sake of the law-abiding majority, the government, the police and the wider criminal justice system should focus on putting those prolific criminals behind bars for as long as it takes to keep our streets safe.

Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said retailers were facing a crime ‘epidemic’: ‘It is increasingly common for retail stores to be targeted by organized crime gangs who steal to order.

“This is by no means a victimless crime, with guns and violence used to ensure these criminals are not stopped.

Footage shows a brave Poundland employee fighting off a shoplifter at a store in Westway Cross Shopping Park in Greenford (file photo)

Phone footage shows young thieves battling past employees to steal trainers from a Nike store in the shadow of Wembley Stadium (file photo)

“This 29% increase in shoplifting is further evidence that we are facing an ongoing epidemic of retail crime which is extremely worrying.”

Separate Home Office figures released today show a rise in the number of cases dropped due to “no suspect identified” from 39.3% to 40.2%.

Despite the police force agreeing to go out to every residential burglary, the number of burglary charges fell from 9,806 in the year ending March 2023 to 9,741 this year.

Today Tory leadership hopeful and former Home Office minister Robert Jenrick said: “The previous Tory government provided 20,000 extra officers and mandated the police force to attend all domestic burglaries. It is truly disappointing to see the burglary charge rate drop for such a pernicious and destructive crime. It raises big questions about how the police spend their time.

Overall, the proportion of suspects charged or summoned for all types of crime rose slightly from 5.7% to 6.4%, but the figures show that most perpetrators escape justice.

In total, 2,156,075 murders remained unsolved in England and Wales in the year ending June 2024, the equivalent of 5,907 crimes every day.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokeswoman Lisa Smart said: “This is the legacy of the Tory failure on crime. Thousands of victims are deprived of the justice they deserve every day, thanks to years of conservative incompetence and neglect.

“Things cannot go on like this. Our communities deserve to feel safe – and that includes being confident that if you are the victim of a crime, the police will show up and investigate properly.

Police Minister Dame Diana Johnson blamed the previous government: “Today’s statistics show the scale of the challenge we have inherited in our mission to make streets safer.

“Too many city centers have been decimated by record levels of theft and communities have been rocked by rising levels of knife crime, theft and robbery. This cannot continue.

“This Government will restore neighborhood policing across the country, put thousands more dedicated officers on our streets and scrap the £200 theft threshold, ending effective impunity for thieves who steal low-value goods.”