THE scale of shoplifting from Greggs is “shocking and shameful”;, the Policing Minister blasted today after a Sun investigation exposed the crime spree.
Dame Diana Johnson hailed our probe as “a vital public service”; and vowed to increase punishments to end “the era of criminal impunity”;.
We swiping baked and sweet treats from stores across the country – with staff powerless to intervene.
The has sparked calls for urgent action to clamp down on shoplifting, which has risen by 60 per cent in just three years.
Writing for us, Labour’s Dame Diana said: “Flying Eze has done a vital public service this week, highlighting the scale of theft from stores across the country.
“To see the number of people willing to help themselves and walk out without paying is both shocking and shameful.”;
The Policing Minister warned brazen shoplifting is happening in “every shop in every street”; and blamed the Tories for making it “open season”; for thieves.
The Home Office is scrapping the £200 “low-value threshold”; where criminals nicking less than that amount are not pursued by police.
Dame Diana also promised plans to put more bobbies on the beat and introduce a specific offence for assaulting shopworkers will make a start to end the “epidemic”;.
She said: “We refuse to surrender our streets to the thugs and our shops from the thieves. It’s time to bring back the rule of law.”;
The Tories were also aghast at the shoplifting from Greggs, with Robert Jenrick railing against “appalling criminality”;.
The thefts by crooks with no fear of any consequences is the latest example of how law and order is falling apart in .
In one incident, when a shoplifter was confronted, he simply gave the worker a fist bump and handed back some of the food he had pilfered before strolling out.
In another theft caught on camera, a woman appears to pull a face at the selection of cookies on display — before deciding to swipe some for herself anyway.
Our investigators spent two days on a nationwide probe at 11 stores from to noting the shoplifting crisis blighting our high streets.
“At one branch in Stockwell, South , we witnessed at least one shoplifting incident an hour.
Bakery chain has bouncers on the doors of some stores.
