Retailers pay for rehab for drug-addicted shoplifters as police and prosecutors treat it as lesser crime

Some of Britain’s biggest high street retail chains have resorted to paying for drug addicted shoplifters to go to rehab because it is treated as a low-level crime by police and prosecutors.

The Co-op, Boots and Morrisons are helping to pay for up to six months' residential drug rehab for addicts who cost them thousands of pounds in goods stolen to feed their habit, and often assault staff in the process. 

Sainsbury’s, Lidl, B&Q, Amazon and TK Maxx are in talks with police to join the scheme aimed at weaning people off drug addiction. It is the first scheme in the UK in which companies fund the treatment of criminals targeting their businesses.

The scheme has been backed by policing chiefs, who say shoplifters should be spared jail if there are alternatives that can break the cycle of reoffending.

Donna Jones, the lead for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ (APCC) serious and organised crime division, said: “Police forces across the country are really struggling to get to these 999 calls and then deal with it, because of how it's being graded as an offence.

“Therefore, people are going to Co-ops with an expectation that the police won't turn up and they won't be apprehended by the staff because the staff know that they're likely to get assaulted. Then it's a knock-on effect. 

“We need to take a different approach to lower and medium level criminals to free up more space in prisons so we can lock up violent criminals and sex offenders for longer.

“I would put it to ministers and in this case to retailers to say please work with us as commissioners across the country to come together to stop the offending and the harm, and for the retailer to stop them from being detrimental and the loss of their goods each year as well.”

The rehab scheme has been pioneered in Birmingham to target the most prolific shoplifters who can spend £1,000 a week on their heroin or crack cocaine addiction. This translates into £3,000 a week of food, drink and white goods that they have to steal and fence, according to police.

The Co-op was the first chain to put funds into the scheme, which was the brainchild of West Midlands police officer Stuart Toogood. It has been followed by Boots and Morrisons and adopted by other forces including Nottinghamshire Police and potentially West Yorkshire Police. 

Offenders are identified through local contacts or the courts and have to want to turn their lives around. They spend three to six months in residential rehab before moving to a “dry” house where their benefits are supplemented by top-ups to pay for voluntary work helping other addicts.

Mr Toogood said: “When you look at the Co-op, it has got a good moral compass. The other side is what retailers are really bothered about is not just theft but violence to shop workers. This not only saves money but also reduces the risk. It’s another tool in the box.”

About half of those who have undergone rehab have stayed clean or are still being treated. They include Caroline Best, 38, who said she looked like a woman twice her age from drugs and was warned her heart was starting to fail. She is now clean, repaying the help by supporting other addicts.

“Thanks to Stuart Toogood, I’m now a productive member of society and I thank him for helping me do something I couldn’t do on my own,” said Ms Best, who spent 15 years in and out of jail.

Hannah Gallimore, of Central England Co-op, said: “As well as working closely with partners such as local police forces to bring criminals to justice, we also want to try to back projects that can not only put an end to crime taking place but also help turn the lives around of those involved.”