Prolific shoplifters behind more than 28,000 offences, finds

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. England's shoplifting problem and the prolific offenders fuelling itImage source, Metropolitan PoliceImage caption, Prolific shoplifters need to "know that they are going to be punished", the policing minister has saidByEma Sabljak, England Data Unit and Ben Moore and Alex Bish, South East InvestigationsPublished2 minutes agoAt the height of his offending, Jeff Ashman estimates he walked out of shops with goods worth £400 to £500 on a daily basis. "It's mind-boggling," he said, describing how much he had stolen from stores in Hastings to fuel his addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. "I know the misery and grief and despair that I have caused these people for a long period of time.

"Shoplifting is now firmly in the past for Ashman, but prolific shoplifters like him continue to plague communities across England. We asked police about the 10 suspects their forces had most often linked to shoplifting offences between 2020-21 and 2025-26. It revealed 28,415 recorded offences had been linked to just 270 suspects by the 27 forces who shared data with us.

The Details

It is an average of 105 offences per person - and those are just the occasions where a theft was formally reported to police and officers identified a suspect. The suspects identified include one in Sussex who had been linked to 247 shoplifting offences, the equivalent of a reported crime every 10 days. Policing minister Sarah Jones said shoplifting was a "pernicious crime that for too long has gone unpunished".

She said: "They need to know that they are going to be punished for what they have done. "Official data shows police forces across England and Wales, excluding the British Transport Police, recorded 502,011 shoplifting offences in 2025-26 alone. More than half of those investigations were closed with no suspect identified.

The government says it is exploring other avenues of tackling prolific shoplifting, in addition to prison sentences and drug treatment, such as technology or court orders preventing them from visiting certain shops or areas. Back in Hastings, Ashman was brought face-to-face with a man he once considered his "public enemy number one". John Bownas leads a team that supports shops in the seaside town, including working together to reduce crime.

What Experts Say

"You and this town and shoplifting," Bownas said to him, "it's a bit of a history. " Image caption, John Bownas (left) told Jeff he had "often succeeded" in staying one step ahead of them, but "we got you in the end"Bownas continues to see the impact of shoplifing on local businesses and those who work for them. "It's a frustration that the system is letting so many people down," he said.

"What that ends up with is young members of staff who are just paid minimum wage to put a few things on the shelf faced with quite often really quite violent characters. "There are threats of needles and threats of knives and that's not what a young shopworker should be faced with day in day out.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.