Ben Everitt, the MP for Milton Keynes North, has welcomed the Government's 'tough new approach' to retail crime with a raft of new measures including tags for repeat offenders.
Since 2010 crime, excluding fraud, has been cut across the country by 55 per cent, but the Government is determined to support shop workers and keepers who continue to be impacted by theft, abuse and violence.
That is why the Prime Minister has launched a tough crackdown on these offences through a raft of new measures such as tags for repeat offenders to prevent future offences, £55.5 million for facial recognition technology to identify offenders and a specific new offence for assaulting shop workers, delivering on our plan to drive down crime.
Perpetrators of assaults on retail workers face being sent to prison for up to six months, receiving an unlimited fine, and being banned from going back to the shop where they committed their crimes, with Criminal Behaviour Orders barring them visiting specific premises. Breaching an Order is also a criminal offence and carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. For the most serious cases of assault, offenders could face a life sentence.
The use of GPS tagging for repeat shoplifters will be expanded, a constant reminder to offenders that the Probation Service can find out where they have been, with the risk of prison time if they don’t comply. Under an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, if an offender is found guilty of assaulting staff three times, or is sentenced for shoplifting on three separate occasions, they should be made to wear a tag.
Over the next four years, £55.5 million will be invested for the police to roll out facial recognition technology, helping to catch criminals, and the Government will also ensure private businesses have the legal and regulatory clarity needed to use such technology themselves with confidence.
On top of this the Government is funding a new prize to encourage the design of new crime prevention systems and bring retailer and insurers together to identify new ways of ‘designing out crime’. We will help businesses adopt cutting-edge digital evidence management systems, so that they can more easily share evidence with the police and fund a new phase of the Pegasus police-business data-sharing partnership, contingent on the success of its first phase.
Locally, Ben has worked closely with the police force in Milton Keynes and Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber to tackle retail crime, including with an issue of repeat offences in Great Linford.
Ben Everitt MP said: "We are giving the police the tools they need to get tough on crime in Milton Keynes. I know how hard local businesses work, how important they are to our local high streets, and how devastating it must be when you are the victim of shoplifting.
"On top of the 870 extra police officers we've secured for Thames Valley Police since 2019, this tough new approach will help us crack down on retail crime in Milton Keynes and across the country."
