Latest news with #JackBarham
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Britain's shoplifting epidemic surges to ANOTHER record high: Store thefts rise by 20% in a year to more than 530,000 offences, police figures reveal
Shoplifting has risen by 20 per cent to hit another record, the latest official figures showed today. Police recorded 530,643 offences in England and Wales in the year to March 2025 - the highest figure since records begun and up from 444,022 in the previous year. Shoplifting has become an increasing nightmare for High Street shops, with only a tiny minority of offenders ever charged. The crisis is illustrated by sickening CCTV revealing thieves casually walking out of stores with armfuls of high-value goods. Footage from a Waitrose store in London 's Notting Hill earlier this month showed two men leaving with a stash of steak and salmon while staff watched on - forbidden from doing anything due to company policy. But elsewhere, shops have been fighting back, with two brave security guards seen grappling with a shoplifter trying to steal bottles of fizzy drink from a Greggs in nearby Hammersmith. Footage filmed by MailOnline showed a young man being forced to drop the items on the floor before leaving in a strop. Today's crime figures - from the Office of National Statistics - also estimated that one in 10 people aged 16 and over in England and Wales were victims of at least one of the crime types of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the year to March. One onlooker who witnessed this month's raid on the Notting Hill Waitrose described how the shoplifters had 'absolutely zero panic on their faces' as they strolled out with the stolen food. Jack Barham recalled: 'They just walked in and walked out. Everyone just stood there. 'I asked the manager on duty what he could do about it, and he said they can not intervene or touch them, in case of a knife, which makes sense. 'But the absurd thing he told me was that the security guards outside can't do anything either. 'What's the point in them? They are essentially window dressing. This for me was the most shocking thing.' A Waitrose spokesperson said: 'Safety is our top priority, and our trained Partners and guards make appropriate interventions when safe to do so.' Since the pandemic, the Russia Ukraine conflict and soaring inflation, theft has soared in the UK, recently hitting the highest level ever seen. While some shoplifting may be fuelled by cost of living pressures, police believe organised gangs targeting expensive goods like steak, wine and high-end electronics are largely to blame. Last year, a national police unit set up to tackle the scourge of shoplifting across Britain identified more than 20 gangs and 200 criminals driving the epidemic. The gangs, many believed to be East European, are responsible for millions of pounds of thefts each year, and are also suspected of human trafficking and exploiting vulnerable individuals. Today's ONS release suggested that overall crime - as recorded by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which quizzes individuals on their experience of crime - had risen by 7 per cent overall, driven by a 31 per cent increase in fraud. Crime against individuals and households has generally decreased over the last decade with some notable exceptions, such as sexual assault. Types of police-recorded crime that have fallen year-on-year falls include homicide (6 per cent), knife and sharp instrument offences (1%), firearms (21%) and robbery (3%). Theft offences recorded by the CSEW are up by 4% year-on-year and - like shoplifting - are now at their highest level since current police recording practices began in 2003. The ONS says last year's rise in theft was 'not statistically significant'. The ONS used data from the CSEW to estimate the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. It believes one in eight for women have fallen victim to these offences, while for men it is slightly lower at about one in 12. It is the first time an estimate has been made of the combined prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking. The survey measures experiences of crime, with domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking referred to as 'crime types' because in some cases a criminal offence may not have occurred. Some 10.6% of all people aged 16 and over are likely to have experienced one or more of these crime types in the year to March 2025, with 12.8% for women and 8.4% for men. The figures equate to an estimated 5.1 million people aged 16 and over in England and Wales, of which 3.2 million are women and nearly 2.0 million are men, the ONS said. A slightly higher estimate of 5.4 million people or 11.3% has been made for the previous 12 months - the year to March 2024 - which equates to 3.4 million women (14.0%) and 2.0 million men (8.6%). The ONS said that because these estimates are still in development and are subject to change, caution should be taken when making comparisons between the two years and is it not possible to say whether the difference is statistically significant. The ONS's new combined estimate of the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking in England and Wales will be used as the main measure for monitoring the Government's ambition to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. The Home Office will provide more detail on the use of the new estimate, together with other ways to measure progress against the target, in a new cross-government VAWG strategy to be published later this year.
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Moment brazen 'thieves' casually walk out of Waitrose with 'handfuls of steak and salmon' - as security guard watches on
This is the shocking moment two brazen thieves walk out of a Waitrose store with 'handfuls of steak and salmon' without being stopped. Security officers and store workers watched on helplessly as their shelves were raided on Thursday evening. Footage shows the two thieves strolling out of the Waitrose store in Notting Hill Gate with the stolen goods at around 8.30pm before cycling off. Other shoppers said they stole 'handfuls of steak, chicken and salmon fillets'. One onlooker, Jack Barham, described the moment, saying that the two shoplifters had 'absolutely zero panic on their faces' 'They just walked in and walked out. Everyone just stood there,' he said. 'I asked the manager on duty what can he do about it, and he said they can not intervene or touch them, in case of a knife, which makes sense. 'But the absurd thing he told me was that the security guards outside can't do anything either. 'What's the point in them? They are essentially window dressing. This for me was the most shocking thing.' MailOnline has approached Waitrose and the Met Police for comment following the incident. It comes as the last few years have been a shoplifting nightmare for High Street shops. Since the pandemic, the Russia Ukraine conflict and soaring inflation, theft has soared in the UK, recently hitting the highest level ever seen. A huge 516,971 offences were logged by police forces last year, up 20 per cent from 429,873 in 2023. The figure is the highest since current police records began 22 years ago in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Norman Brennan, a former police detective in London, said earlier this year that terrified shop staff had been left helpless to prevent crooks from brazenly ransacking their businesses. The 65-year-old - who spent 31 years as a cop and was once stabbed in the chest by an armed burglar - said crippling cuts to policing, which have seen thousands of officers lost in recent years, had left forces stretched too thinly. 'Britain's criminal justice system and policing is on life-support,' he warned. 'Britain is in anarchy and it's out of control. Police can't control it. They don't have the staff to turn up. 'There isn't a village, town or city in Britain that is not affected by shoplifting... It's a free for all. Gangs are lawless.' It comes as alarming figures showed retail crime is spiralling out of control as criminals besiege shops, with thefts having soared a staggering 22 per cent in 2023-24 across England and Wales. Lawless thugs - many not even bothering to cover their faces - sweep entire shelves of items into their rucksacks before blustering past powerless security staff, seemingly unafraid of being punished. Crooks are becoming even more daring in their bids to ransack shops, with CCTV showing them clambering through roofs or wearing specially modified coats to pile hundreds of pounds of stolen good into. Some gangs even loot stores en masse, dumping vast quantities of booze and expensive meats into trolleys before fleeing - with few facing any real punishment. The latest figures from the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) crime survey found that just two per cent of offences reported to police resulted in a conviction. The crisis is most acute in London, where the capital has recorded a shocking 50 per cent boom in shoplifting, up from 53,202 in 2023 to 80,041 last year. About 55,000 crimes are reported every day nationwide - with 38 stores targeted every second, BRC data has revealed. Meanwhile, workers are increasingly being attacked by yobs, with stats showing 45,000 violent incidents took place during the last year - more than 124 a day.
ITV News
12-05-2025
- Sport
- ITV News
Aldershot Town to parade FA Trophy around town centre after Wembley final win
FA Trophy winners Aldershot Town will embark on an open-top bus tour around the town this evening. The parade, which will begin and end at the EBB Stadium, will give supporters and locals a chance to both celebrate with the squad, and see the silverware for themselves, up close and personal. The squad and players will tour around the town centre, before making its way down the high street and through the North Town region. It will start from 6:30pm, and supporters are encouraged to attend a trophy presentation after the parade at 7:30pm. It took the club nearly a century and two football clubs to reach Wembley again, as The Shots won 3-0 against Spennymoor Town of the National League North. The Hampshire side beat fierce local rivals Woking FC in the semi finals, to make it to Wembley Stadium, taking over 18,000 supporters in the process. Three second half goals from Jack Barham, Daniel Ellison and Josh Barrett saw the National League side run out the victors - in a season where their manager Tommy Widdrington was blighted with illness, suffering two strokes in November 2024. The club reformed in 1992, rising from the ashes of the original Aldershot FC.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aldershot end 99-year Wembley wait with sunshine and champagne showers
It took Aldershot 99 years and two football clubs to reach Wembley and for almost exactly as many minutes on a sun-kissed May afternoon they made themselves entirely at home there, outnumbering their opponents in the stands and outplaying them on the pitch on their way to claiming their first FA Trophy. Second-half goals from Jack Barham, Dan Ellison and Josh Barrett earned the National League side a 3-0 win over Spennymoor Town of the National League North, and secured for their manager, Tommy Widdrington, a dream end to a season temporarily derailed when he had two strokes in November. Widdrington was back in the dugout in less than two months having acquired, as he put it in the buildup to this game, 'a certain sense of perspective'. This was an excellent, mature performance, whatever way you look at it. 'People will forget about me. That's what happens in football. But they'll never forget how I've made them feel, how my team's made them feel,' Widdrington said. 'Football's a tough old industry. It kicks you up the backside a lot more than it pats you on the back. I'm going to enjoy being patted on the back the next few days.' For Aldershot, who sprang from the ashes of Aldershot FC in 1992, this was an emphatic win but, from the moment they accidentally left two members of their starting XI behind when they set off for Wembley, not a completely carefree one. Spennymoor had beaten three National League sides on their way to Wembley and there were moments when they threatened another upset, notably creating the best chance of the opening half only for Rob Ramshaw to send a miserably meek shot rolling into Marcus Dewhurst's arms from eight yards. 'Nine times out of 10 he'd have put that in the back of the net,' said Graeme Lee, the Spennymoor manager. 'We've had our moments throughout this cup run, and today we didn't take them.' The game shifted three minutes after the interval when James Henry ran down the right and crossed, and though the ball arrived slightly behind Barham he somehow contorted his leg into a position to get some kind of contact on it. His touch turned out to be perfect, sending it rolling gently but unstoppably into the corner of the net. 'That goal changed everything,' said Lee. 'It deflated us and took the energy out of us a little bit, and we couldn't get back into it.' Aldershot arrived in poor form, having won just one game since Barnham's last-minute goal earned them a 2-1 win over 10-man Woking in the semi-finals. But once in front they played with the cocksure strut of champions and in the 71st minute Ellison glanced in a header from a corner to make the game all but safe. Three minutes from time Barrett, their player of the season, produced the kind of goal all players dream of scoring in this stadium, a splendid left-footed volley from the edge of the area that dipped over James and into the corner of the net. Tyler Frost and Maxwell Mullins both missed chances to score a fourth as the Moors flung themselves forward in search of consolation. Earlier Jamie Coyle, centre-back, two-time (Seniors) World Cup-winner, Whitstable player-manager and playing his final competitive game just days before his 42nd birthday, led his team from the back to a 2-1 victory over Whyteleafe in the FA Vase final, decided after extra time when, on a balmy, sun-kissed afternoon at Wembley, Leafe finally wilted. Whyteleafe, another phoenix club, have enjoyed remarkable success since their creation in 2021 and when Daniel Bennett gave them a 17th-minute lead they seemed set for still more. But Whitstable have now lost only two of their past 28 games – and one of those was on penalties – and they fought back to eventually turn over the new Leafe. Daniel Colmer produced a couple of outstanding saves to keep his side in the game before the Oystermen finally came out of their shell in the second half, and seven minutes into it their top scorer, Harvey Smith, equalised from 20 yards, running on to Nathan Jeche's precise pass and wrongfooting George Hill, who let the ball whistle just a yard or so to his right. Leafe repeatedly threatened to steal victory but it was Whitstable who claimed it: in the 97th minute Albie O'Mara-Knapp crossed from the right and Ronald Sithole somehow scuffed his shot into a post. But he made up for it three minutes later when he ran on to the same player's long punt forward, reclaimed the ball after Hill saved his initial effort, worked a better angle for a shot, and lashed into the roof of the net.
The Guardian
11-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Aldershot end 99-year Wembley wait with sunshine and champagne showers
It took Aldershot 99 years and two football clubs to reach Wembley and for almost exactly as many minutes on a sun-kissed May afternoon they made themselves entirely at home there, outnumbering their opponents in the stands and outplaying them on the pitch on their way to claiming their first FA Trophy. Second-half goals from Jack Barham, Dan Ellison and Josh Barrett earned the National League side a 3-0 win over Spennymoor Town of the National League North, and secured for their manager Tommy Widdrington a dream end to a season temporarily derailed when he suffered two strokes in November. Widdrington was back in the dugout in less than two months having acquired, as he put it in the buildup to this game, 'a certain sense of perspective'. This was an excellent, mature performance, whatever way you look at it. 'People will forget about me. That's what happens in football. But they'll never forget how I've made them feel, how my team's made them feel,' Widdrington said. 'Football's a tough old industry. It kicks you up the backside a lot more than it pats you on the back. I'm going to enjoy being patted on the back the next few days.' For Aldershot, who sprung from the ashes of Aldershot FC in 1992, this was an emphatic win but, from the moment they accidentally left two members of their starting XI behind when they set off for Wembley, not a completely carefree one. Spennymoor had beaten three National League sides on their way to Wembley and there were moments when they threatened another upset, notably creating the best chance of the opening half only for Rob Ramshaw to send a miserably meek shot rolling into Marcus Dewhurst's arms from eight yards. 'Nine times out of 10 he'd have put that in the back of the net,' said Graeme Lee, the Moors' manager. 'We've had our moments throughout this cup run, and today we didn't take them.' The game shifted three minutes after the interval when James Henry ran down the right and crossed, and though the ball arrived slightly behind Barham he somehow contorted his leg into a position to get some kind of contact on it. His touch turned out to be perfect, sending it rolling gently but unstoppably into the corner of the net. 'That goal changed everything,' said Lee. 'It deflated us and took the energy out of us a little bit, and we couldn't get back into it.' Aldershot arrived in poor form, having won just one game since Barnham's last-minute goal earned them a 2-1 win over 10-man Woking in the semi-finals. But once in front they played with the cocksure strut of champions, and in the 71st minute Ellison glanced in a header from a corner to make the game all but safe. Three minutes from time Barrett, their player of the season, produced the kind of goal all players dream of scoring in this stadium, a splendid left-footed volley from the edge of the area that dipped over James and into the corner of the net. Both Tyler Frost and Maxwell Mullins missed chances to score a fourth as the Moors flung themselves forward in search of consolation. Earlier Jamie Coyle, centre-half, two-time (Seniors) World Cup-winner, Whitstable player-manager and playing his final competitive game just days before his 42nd birthday, led his team from the back to a 2-1 victory over AFC Whyteleafe in the FA Vase final, decided after extra time when, on a balmy, sun-kissed afternoon at Wembley, Leafe finally wilted. Whyteleafe, another phoenix club, have enjoyed remarkable success since their creation in 2021 and when Daniel Bennett gave them a 17th-minute lead they seemed set for still more. But Whitstable have now lost only two of their last 28 games – and one of those was on penalties – and they fought back to eventually turn over the new Leafe. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Daniel Colmer produced a couple of outstanding saves to keep his side in the game before the Oystermen finally came out of their shell in the second half, and seven minutes into it top-scorer Harvey Smith equalised from 20 yards, running on to Nathan Jeche's precise pass and wrongfooting George Hill, who let the ball whistle just a yard or so to his right. Leafe repeatedly threatened to steal victory but it was Whitstable who eventually claimed it: in the 97th minute Albie O'Mara-Knapp crossed from the right and Ronald Sithole somehow scuffed his shot into a post, but he made up for it three minutes later when he ran on to the same player's long punt forward, reclaimed the ball after Hill saved his initial effort, worked a better angle for a shot and lashed into the roof of the net.
