Thefts and violence against retail workers in Britain have fired a record level last year and is “out of control”, partly by criminal gangs, according to a report published on Thursday.

Her annual crime investigation British Retail Consortium (BRC) He found that more than 20 million theft incidents were committed in the year until August 31, 2024, equivalent to 55,000 a day, costing retailers a total of £ 2.2 billion ($ 2.7 billion).

There were 16 million incidents last year.

BRC said that many more incidents in the last period are connected to organized crimewith gangs targeting systematic shops across the country.

Incidents of violence and abuse in 2023/24 increased to over 2,000 a day, from 1,300 last year.

‘The retail crime gets out of control. People in retail are suffering, there is racial abuse and threats with weapons. Every day this continues, criminals are becoming more and more bold and aggressive. “said Helen Dickinson, head of BRC.

Police response satisfaction to the incidents it remains lowwith 61% of respondents describing it as “poor” or “very poor”, the report showed.

“With a little faith in the presence of the police, it is no wonder that criminals feel that they are allowed to steal, threaten, attack and abuse,” said Dickinson.

BRC reported that the amount spent on crime prevention also reached a high level, with retailers investing 1.8 billion pounds in meters such as CCTV, security personnel, anti -theft devices and cameras, from £ 1.2 billion in 2022/23.

The new Labor Government is committed to dealing with rising crime in retail trade through stronger measures to deal with theft and antisocial behavior. It also plans to introduce a autonomous offense for attacking a retail worker.

The issue of theft and violence has been raised by many of Britain’s largest retailers in the last year, including Tesco Tsco.l, John Lewis and Primark Abf.l, repeating similar references to the United States and elsewhere.