Supermarket giant says it will pay customers to report shoplifters
Richard Walker, the retailer's executive chairman, confirmed that shoppers who alert staff to offenders will receive the payment directly to their membership card.
The move comes as the business faces an estimated £20 million annual hit from the cost of shoplifting.
He added the £20 million cost of theft limits the amount that the company can pay back out to its colleague and restrains its ability to lower prices.
Mr Walker told Channel Five news that shoplifting is not a "victimless crime".
'I'd like to announce that we will give £1 to any customer who points out a shoplifter.
'We'll put it on their bonus card, if they see any customers in our stores who is undertaking that offence.
'Some people see this as a victimless crime; it is not.
'It also keeps prices from being lowered because it is a cost to the business.
'It's a cost to the hours we pay our colleagues, as well as it being about intimidation and violence.'
'We'd like customers to help us lower our prices even more by pointing out shoplifters,' Mr Walker added.
Last month, official figures revealed that the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales climbed to another record high.
Some 530,643 offences were logged in the year to March 2025, up 20% from 444,022 in 2023-24 and the highest total since current police recording practices began in 2002-03.
At the time, retail bosses warned that shop theft was spiralling out of control and that business owners need to see immediate results as ministers have pledged thousands more officers for neighbourhood policing by next spring.
Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said the recorded figures show more crimes are being reported, but this is still 'far too low', with many retailers having 'no faith' in incidents being investigated.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Return of the flip phone: does Apple's foldable iPhone signal a new era in design?
Back in 2005, nothing felt more high-powered and sophisticated than ending a call by snapping shut a clamshell flip phone. Now, two decades since they hit peak popularity, they're back – with Apple rumoured to be working on its first ever flip phone. Little is known about how it will look. It could resemble Samsung's Flip design – closer to a 2000s-style clamshell phone – or its Fold, more like a foldable iPad. A JPMorgan report has suggested that the first foldable iPhone will be revealed in September 2026, priced at $1,999 (£1,474), and will likely expand a foldable phone market expected to reach 19m units in 2025. The rectangular tablet has been a mainstay of phone design for the last 15 years, but could Apple betting on the flip phone be a sign that's about to change? Tech experts said the new product launch probably reflected the fact that people now mostly access the internet on their phones, rather than laptops or tablets, and are looking for a device that optimises that experience – but the high price point suggests it will remain a premium product. 'Apple and all other smartphone makers are somewhat stymied by the fact the smartphone has become somewhat of a boring category – it's absolutely essential in people's daily lives, but it no longer has the excitement of the next big thing,' said Ben Wood, an analyst at the tech consultancy CCS Insight. This is why Apple has been reaching for new designs that can get people talking – for example, the ultra-thin iPhone, expected to be launched in September. Wood thinks Apple is entering the foldable market because other companies have experimented first. Samsung's initial Galaxy Fold designs were bedevilled by screen problems, but next week's Galaxy Flip and Fold 7 triple release, featuring slimmer designs and bigger screens, is expected to represent the 'next generation' of foldable phones, which Samsung will be hoping reverses the flatlining sales in 2024. 'Apple is rarely first to anything – it's not typically a company that dives in with both feet – it likes to take its time, see how it can refine and optimise it, and deliver the best, most reliable experience, then it jumps,' Wood said. He noted that Samsung's flip phone has been more popular than the fold model 'because it's cheaper and has captured imagination of the population who like the idea of having something different from everyone else'. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion But he thinks that Apple producing a foldable mini-tablet has the most potential to 'move the needle' by giving people the opportunity to unfold a larger screen where they can easily watch videos, show off photos and browse documents when working remotely. Margarita Panayiotou, a tech researcher at the University of Manchester, said academic research had identified that people prefer bigger screens for browsing and gaming. This, combined with the fact that young people, especially, tend to use smartphones to go online, suggests that the foldable design could offer an ideal compromise for future consumers. Prof Ben Carter, who researches how smartphones impact our lives at King's College London, agreed that video watching was 'one of the wins' for foldable phones, especially since videos constitute a growing proportion of the content that people consume. Foldable phones can have larger screens and can also be propped up for easier viewing. He thought there could be mental health benefits to a design resembling a 'mini-laptop that you can close down'. His research shows that disabling notifications is highly effective in reducing screen time and tackling smartphone addiction. If the screen is not visible, it removes the 'variable reward scheme' – the same process by which gambling addiction works, whereby not knowing when you will receive a reward makes something more compelling. 'If you can switch it off, more like a laptop, that distraction has gone,' he said, though he noted there waws not yet evidence that people are using foldable phones in this way. This might be especially beneficial for children, who receive on average more than 200 notifications a day – though the high price point of foldable phones makes it unlikely that many will have access to them until their parents pass on secondhand models several years after launch. Prof David Ellis, the chair of behavioural science at the University of Bath, said that other draws include the fact that screens are better protected and fit into a smaller pocket, as well as the 'sense of nostalgia that comes with a flip phone'. But he added that it might not be the gamechanger people are expecting: Apple doesn't have a '100% success rate – the Vision Pro [headset] has been a spectacular failure'.
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The Albanian small boat migrant who flooded the streets with crack cocaine after boasting about how easy it was to sneak into Britain
An Albanian small boat migrant began dealing crack cocaine after fleeing his luxury asylum hotel. Elvis Zoto, 22, gloated on social media about entering the UK illegally and even posted a photo of his Home Office registration form showing his arrival in Dover in 2022. Approached shortly afterwards by a Mail on Sunday reporter posing as migrant still in France, he said the journey to the UK had been easy, and revealed he had already fled his asylum hotel by climbing out of a window. Shocking new details about his case have now emerged in a High Court judgment that finally gave the green light to his deportation - a whole three years after he first arrived in Britain. Campaigners said his case is the latest evidence of the 'desperate' need to reform the immigration system. Zoto flew from Albania to Belgium before travelling by train to France. He then paid a people smuggler to get him on a small boat to Britain, where he was detained by Border Force at Dover on June 29, 2022. More than 12,600 Albanians came to Britain on small boats in 2022 before a returns agreement slashed this number. At the time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) warned that Albanian drug gangs were using the route to bring workers into the UK. In common with most Albanian small boat arrivals at the time, Zoto claimed asylum and was put up in a hotel, the four-star Crowne Plaza in Basingstoke. At his initial interview, Zoto claimed he had left Albania after being forced to deal drugs. He later claimed to be a victim of human trafficking. However, the Albanian only stayed at the Crowne Plaza for two days before fleeing on July 2 as part of a pre-planned escape. Asylum seekers are required to maintain contact with the Home Office as part of their release and to inform the authorities of any new address. The Home Office drafted a letter to Zoto stating that his decision to leave the hotel meant his asylum claim was considered 'implicitly withdrawn', but this was not sent because they did not know where he lived. Court documents state there is 'no evidence' officials tried to contact him by any other method - despite having his Albanian phone number. It appears Zoto quickly linked up with a drug gang, and on November 1, 2023, he was arrested by Essex Police after a stop and search. The following April, he was convicted of dealing crack cocaine and sentenced to two years and nine months in prison. Criminals who receive a custodial sentence of over a year automatically face deportation, but Zoto won the right to challenge the decision on the basis he still had a pending asylum claim and a hearing took place in July 2025. But his appeal was dismissed in a judgment issued on Wednesday by High Court judge Claire Padley, who backed the Home Office's claim that Zoto had forfeited his right to claim asylum by escaping his hotel. Zoto had a conditional release date of December 2024. The Mail has asked the Home Office where he is now and when he will be deported but has not received a response. Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, told the Daily Mail: 'Three years on from making his way here illegally in a small boat, Zoto is finally to be deported. 'He should have been refused entry and removed within hours of reaching the UK. A system that allows such a chancer to string it out for three years, at huge cost to the taxpayer, is clearly in desperate need of reform.' A video posted on Zoto's TikTok social media account shortly after he fled his asylum hotel showed him sitting outside a cafe on a busy London street. The video was accompanied by laughing emojis. Separate images showed him posing with huge wads of £20 and £50 banknotes. Asked by the undercover Mail on Sunday reporter posing as a migrant about the dangers of the cross-Channel crossing, Zoto said: 'Do not be scared of it. I arrived on a boat. A journey that doesn't need a lot of money and the best for you.' In a later message, he added: 'They keep you in detention a maximum of two days, then send you to a hotel. In the detention centre it's good conditions. 'You tell them you are married and that's the end of the story. You have to get away from the hotel and just wait for your relatives to get you in a car. 'I left from the window of that hotel... I disappeared... Keep a low profile and after a month get a solicitor.' Small boat migrants have regularly documented their crossings on social media. One, Parwiz Hanifyar, gained nearly one million views for this a 'step by step' guide on entering Britain illegally. The Afghan, who left Calais at around 4am last Saturday, shared videos of himself on the small boat before live streaming from an asylum hotel. It later emerged he had been reported to police for allegedly sharing another clip telling men how to kill their estranged wives. In a video filmed in Germany last month, Hanifyar is claimed to have said: 'A brave man does not allow his wife to marry another man, even have children and live with someone else.' He is now staying in a taxpayer-funded hotel near Heathrow. More than 27,000 small boat migrants have arrived so far in 2025 – a record for this point in the year since data began in 2018. On Wednesday, a record 107 small boat migrants have reached Britain in just one dinghy, confounding Labour's pledge to 'smash the gangs'. The use of bigger migrant boats will be of deep concern to British officials, who have ploughed significant resources into attempts to disrupt traffickers' supplies.
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
What do people in Epping think of the town's migrant hotel?
For weeks now, there have been protests near the Bell Hotel in Epping, which houses single male asylum far this month they have largely been peaceful, but in July some descended into disorder. Riot police were on residential streets; helicopters were whirring over homes at night. Twenty-eight people have been arrested, with police officers injured and vehicles damaged. The protests started after an asylum seeker housed at the hotel was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He is in custody awaiting further court where Sir Winston Churchill was MP from 1924 to 1945, is at the end of London Underground's Central line. Its bustling High Street has bakeries, hair salons, cafes and on some of the protest days, it has been a ghost town - with many businesses shutting early. One local councillor described Epping as the epicentre of Britain's anti-migrant protests. What do locals make of it? "They shouldn't be there. They should be gone. "They are causing nothing but trouble in the town," said Debbie was pushing her grandson in a pram on a warm said the asylum seekers should be "kept in a camp until they are processed" and suggested a military base like MDP Wethersfield in north Essex - where hundreds are currently being housed - would be Ellis welcomed the protests."I think it should be happening, I've been to a couple. If we don't stand up for our town no-one else is going to," she said."They shouldn't be left in a population where there's little kids running round, shops where they go shoplifting," she added. Several people alleged asylum seekers have been shoplifting. One store manager who did not want to be named said stealing from their shop was an issue, but they had no idea if the culprits were asylum seekers or not. They did not feel thefts were worse in Epping compared to other crime up to June (the current figures) has remained broadly the same in Epping and Ongar over the past 18 months, with between 261 and 365 crimes reported a month. The figure was slightly higher in some months in 2022-23 according to Essex Police's crime statistics. 'Haven't felt unsafe' For Priyam Atter, out and about with her toddler, it was the protests she was concerned about."I've never had any issues with people who I can see are from that hotel. "I certainly haven't felt unsafe by those people, but I certainly have felt unsafe by the riots that happened in this area."I think it is a stain on Epping." Elsabe Coericius was out shopping. She said "if the hotel is the only place where they can stay they should be allowed".She is a Quaker and said: "I believe in peaceful protest. "I think everybody should be able to share their views and opinions."Epping Forest District Council has been seeking an injunction against the owner of the Bell Hotel to stop it being used to house asylum seekers. Ms Coericius described that move as "a disgrace". But others like Sara and Jan Russell, out for a brisk summer walk, supported the council's High Court action."I'm all for it. I've lived here for over 50 years now. We've never seen anything like this."It's not right, nobody likes it," said Jan Russell added: "It's about time these asylum seekers did just go. "We are such a small town - we can't really afford to have that sort of people walking up and down the street." She said she saw the asylum seekers "just dossing around" in the town. They had not been involved in the protests, but they supported said Sara Russell, not "when people are coming off the Central line from the other side of London and are just pretending to be from the local area". "There's a very small percentage of people who are protesters from Epping town," she said she had "nothing against the legal migrants" but when it came to those arriving by boat across the Channel, her answer was to "put them on Ascension island". Social media 'drums drumming' As she strolled past, another resident, Sue Rosso, heard what they were saying and disagreed."There is this major issue that we have in this country with lots of people coming to seek refuge. "Fundamentally, the hotels, whilst not an ideal option is - as I see it - the only temporary option," she the shoplifting accusations, Ms Rosso said: "There's a lot of drums drumming on the social media and a lot of fake news."In my view those incidents are not true."She said she felt the protests should be in Westminster, not Epping, as it was the government who was placing asylum seekers in the are strong views on the Bell Hotel in Epping and it appeared to be dividing opinion."It's turning neighbour against neighbour," Ms Rosso said. "This was a community based town and I hope it will be that again in the future." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
