A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Middle-class shoppers who have been hit by the recession are stealing hundreds of millions of pounds of expensive food in an effort to maintain their high standard of living, according to a new survey.
Quality cuts of meat, fresh fish and high-priced cheeses are being taken by mostly middle-class women from speciality food and convenience shops, where thefts have risen sharply in the past year. Thousands of retailers have found that luxury foods are being stolen for individual use rather than to be sold on.
The information comes from more than 42,000 shops in Europe with combined sales of £262 billion, who were questioned by the Centre for Retail Research, an independent organisation, for Checkpoint Systems, the retail security specialists.
They found that shoplifting in Britain has increased in the past year by nearly 20 per cent to almost £5 billion, £750 million more than in 2008, keeping Britain at the top of Europe’s shoplifting table. Clothing and fashion accessory shops were hardest hit, with branded designer goods high on thieves’ shopping lists, closely followed by DIY stores.
Neil Matthews, vice-president of Checkpoint Systems, said that he was astonished at the rise of middle-class shoplifters. “We are not simply looking at your traditional shoplifters here. We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell on than before,” he said.
“This is epitomised in the recent uprising of the middle-class shoplifter, someone who has turned to theft to sustain their standard of living. I suppose people want to carry on with their lifestyle but cannot afford the expensive cheeses, fresh cuts of meat or nice fish that they used to be able to afford and now they just take it. This is the first year we have seen a huge rise in theft of these items and we are being told it is for their own consumption rather than to sell on.”
He added: “The UK’s retail industry has seen its largest ever increase in shoplifting over the last 12 months, and it comes at a time when the industry can least afford it.”
The report, which surveyed more than 1,000 retailers worldwide with sales of £514 billion, found that 43.5 per cent of all stock that went missing was stolen by opportunistic thieves and organised gangs, but employee theft was on the rise. Britain is behind only the Irish Republic in Western Europe for the most dishonest staff.
This is the first part of the interview with Ken Hancock broadcast in the north of Scotland last month.
A mother who warned her naughty children they may be smacked was followed home by an off-duty police officer and later questioned.
The incident happened while the mother, 34, was out shopping at a Southampton supermarket.
She had warned her children, aged eleven and four, that if they continued to misbehave they would get a “hiding” when they got home.
An off-duty police officer, who witnessed the telling off, then secretly followed them to the family home and two uniformed officers visited six weeks later.
When the police came to the home, they advised the mother to use a ‘naughty step’ or to withdraw treats as discipline instead of smacking.
The family later received a letter from social services which said no further action would be taken “at this time”, but added: “We would like to advise you that we do keep the information on record.”
The mother, who remains anonymous in order to protect her children, said: “It was an amazing intrusion. I was doing what parents should do, and what thousands do every week – setting moral boundaries for how children should behave.”
She also said: “If no one stands up to this oppression, this political correctness, parents will lose responsibility for their kids and the state will take over.
“The local authority have told me they’re keeping my family on record until my kids leave school, and my daughter is only four.
“If she ever falls over and has to be taken to hospital I’m worried about what conclusions they might come to. I feel I’m being kept on record as an abuser, so I will always be looking over my shoulder.”
Care, a social welfare charity, said: “One fears that it was a wholly disproportionate response to a threatened smack informed by the destructive and censorious views of those opinion formers who refuse to make a distinction between smacking, which can actually be very helpful, and beating which is a serious crime.”
Hampshire Police said: “An off-duty officer reported to our child protection team an incident involving a woman in Southampton, who they saw chastising her children.
“It was not an ordinary telling off and because of what the woman said and the way her children reacted, it gave our officer reasonable grounds for concern for the children’s welfare and that they may be at risk of physical chastisement.”
I was in Kenwood House today and noticed this painting, which hasn't grabbed my attention before. A view of Dordrecht by Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691) was painted some years after the famous Synod of 1618 in about 1652.
