Police smash shoplifting gang after using DNA to trace 5,000 products

Telegraph

22-04-2025

Police have smashed a shoplifting gang after using synthetic DNA to trace 5,000 store items.
In the first operation of its kind, Scotland Yard officers targeted a gang suspected of stealing goods to sell them on in corner shops at knockdown prices.
Eight shops were raided by more than 100 officers after they were suspected of buying alcohol and food that had been stolen from major retailers such as Waitrose and the Co-op before selling them on at lower prices.
Police officers marked 5,000 items with synthetic DNA, which featured individual chemical signatures so they could be traced back to the big supermarkets.
It is the first time such technology has been used and led to 15 arrests in dawn raids including a suspected kingpin, aged 48, and his wife, 43, at their home in an upmarket suburb in south London.
Most of the 15 suspects are understood to have been shopkeepers who could face charges of handling stolen goods. One man, aged 64, was arrested on suspicion of having a Taser and another, 39, of owning a machete.
The operation followed months of planning to identify offending patterns by working with retailers and analysing crime reports. Officers marked the most commonly stolen items, such as alcohol and chocolate, with SelectaDNA, which is used to mark property with its own DNA code.
Because each mark is unique, they can trace it back to the bigger stores where officers can return to gather more evidence, such as CCTV and victim impact statements to help bring prosecutions.
Officers also found several own-brand products that had been made for particular supermarkets for sale in the corner shops.
The operation comes as shoplifting hit a record high in the year to June with 469,788 offences reported to police, up nearly 29 per cent on the previous year's total of 365,173, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
That equates to more than 9,000 offences a week, or 1,290 a day. Taking average the averages opening times of UK shops, it equates to more than two offences per minute.
The figures are at their highest since current records began in March 2003, with retailers warning the crisis adds at least 6p to every store transaction by customers. The British Retail Consortium calculates losses of £1.8 billion stolen each year, with a further £700 million spent on extra security.
Sgt James Burke, who led the operation, said: 'Shoplifting pushes up prices for customers and often results in retail workers being verbally and physically abused. It also funds the drug trade and contributes to anti-social behaviour and violence.
'The local officers in my neighbourhood team have put in months of hard work alongside impacted businesses to trial new tactics to drive down shoplifting in the area and have delivered impressive results here.
'The Met is focussed on targeting those involved in co-ordinating this activity and by disrupting their operation we are confident we can reduce offending and the impact it has on communities across London.'
Three women, aged between 39 and 45, and 10 men, between 23 and 64, were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods. They have since been bailed pending further inquiries.
Another two men, both aged 48, were separately arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods on April 17. They were also bailed.
Police hope the new tactics could boost conviction rates because of the quality of the evidence. The number of unsolved shoplifting offences has risen by nearly a fifth in just a year, Home Office figures show.
Nearly 270,000 shoplifting cases were closed without a suspect being identified in England and Wales in the year to September 2024, a 19 per cent rise on the previous year.