Wallington high street has been tackling its shoplifting crisis with a crime watch WhatsApp group.
Retailers, dissatisfied with lack of intervention from police and courts, set up Wallington Community Action in October 2024 to notify one another when they spotted a shoplifter.
This comes amid reports from the Sutton Guardian last month that a man stole 34 times in 50 days from the Wallington Co-op.
One 37-year-old retail employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “If I put [that I have spotted a shoplifter] in the group, someone from each door can go and stand at the door and then [the shoplifter’s] like ‘Why is everyone looking at me’.”
The group buzzes daily with criminal activity which, according to businesses the Londoners spoke to, has often worked as a deterrent.
The employee added: “A few times when I’ve caught them, I said all of us are linked together, so don’t bother trying to go to any other shop.”
Even though the group is having an impact, the retailers feel let down by the police and courts when they report each incident.
A 52-year-old retail manager said: “I was assaulted the other day by two customers, and the police didn’t think it was a priority. They still haven’t been for the footage – that was two Fridays ago.”
“One of my cases got thrown out [of court] because I didn’t let her get out of the door…she might have been going to pay for it.”
The retailers said when police do interact with shoplifters, they often take their side by asking employees to apologise, provide customer service or by letting them go.
Chris Johnson, 62, a charity shop owner, said: “In my more negative moments, I don’t think anyone’s pulling their weight. I think we’ve been thrown to the wolves and just left to get on with it.”
The retailers also feel second-best in security resources to its larger counterpart, Sutton high street.
Businesses on Sutton high street have radios to communicate and a police station, whereas Wallington has neither.
Johnson said: “We used to have a police station around the corner, then it was a police office, and then it was a police phone, and then it was nothing at all.”
The WhatsApp group contains one police officer, but higher priorities divert her attention elsewhere.
Wallington high street businesses have suffered major financial losses as a cost of the repeated robberies.
A 55-year-old manager, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We’ve had an instance where we’ve lost £6,000 worth of cosmetics. They were here for 15 minutes.”
The threshold of financial losses for prosecuting shoplifting currently stands at £200, but the Crime and Policing Bill 2025, proposes to scrap that figure.
This means all shoplifting cases will be treated as general theft with a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
However, according to the businesses, the figures have no impact on policing, given the consistent abuse they face.
The 37-year-old said: “We get abused every day. [My colleague] had a man shouting, screaming and swearing in her face.”
The 55-year-old added: “I’ve been threatened with a screwdriver by one. Half of them you don’t even touch, they’re so violent.”
They believe it would take someone getting seriously injured to force the police to be stricter with their punishment.
Some shops have posters on their windows of the most notorious shoplifters who roam the area.
If they are tame enough, employees may apprehend them.
Employees are encouraged not to chase shoplifters out of the store as their companies cannot be held responsible for their safety once that line is crossed.
The Crime and Policing Bill 2025 also proposes to introduce an offence for assaulting a retail worker.
Although most of the high-street shops feel affected financially and mentally by the crisis, some places feel differently.
A manager at Lidl, Aura Blaga, 32, said: “The shoplifting rate in Wallington is lower than the Croydon area because I was there for over a year, so I can compare just with that period that it’s a little bit better.”
A Tesco Express security guard added: “It’s a common thing; every area has their issue.”
Wallington South Met Police were contacted but refused to comment.
Featured image credit: Rume Otuguor
Join the discussion