With an annual offence tally that has just smashed the 400,000 mark since records started in 2002, the tide of crime shopkeepers face in theft has now risen above pre-Covid levels - and it's an epidemic no shopkeeper in the county now fails to recognise .

The latest Office for National Statistics count shows that police counted 402,482 offences in the year to September 2023, equating to a shocking 32% rise on the previous 12 months, when 304,459 offences were recorded.

The previous record high was 382,643, which was recorded in the year to March 2018.

The latest figures come in the wake of the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) 2023 Crime Survey which showed incidents of violence and abuse towards retail colleagues had almost doubled on pre-Pandemic levels to 867 incidents every day in 2021/22.

For VIral Meta, who runs Linden Stores on Bristol Road in Gloucester, the problem was underscored by a theft just a few days ago.

Mr Meta told Punchline-Gloucester.com: "The man was at the counter and paying when he just suddenly grabbed the items and ran. We have security cameras and yes, we could call the police, but with the items adding up to £17, we knew it would not be worth the extra time and effort."

Such incidents are a worry when running a shop, he said.

He added: "We have not had too many over the six years I have run the store with my wife, Deepu. The concern is that if it is just one of you on duty then you are vulnerable, so if a specific offence was made law for threatening a retail worker we would really like that to be brought in."

The BRC has also put the scale of retail theft at £953m, despite more than £700m in crime prevention spending by retailers. This meant the total cost of retail crime stood at £1.76bn for the 12-month period to April 2023.

A spokesperson said: "The situation has clearly got worse; a separate BRC survey of members in 2023 found that levels of shoplifting in ten major cities had risen by an average of 27%. This is not to mention the cascade of recent press stories detailing the wave of theft and violence currently impacting shops across the UK."

Last autumn, in a bid to try to protect retail staff, the BRC added its support to an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to create an "Offence of assaulting a retail worker".

Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, said: "This amendment would show clear support for millions of dedicated retail workers up and down the country. Retail crime is soaring, with over 850 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers every day, double pre-pandemic levels. Shoplifting has also increased by an average of 27% across ten of the UK's largest cities in the last year."

The rise in incidents comes despite retailers investing hundreds of millions of pounds in safety measures such as body-worn cameras, more security personnel and CCTV, the BRC added.

She continued: "We cannot stand idle and let another year go by as retail crime continues to rise and retail workers continue to suffer. The current laws simply do not go far enough."

● The Co-op's food business recorded a £33m loss across just six months in 2023 – and attributed the figure to shoplifting and associated crime. The food retailers bosses have warned that looting by prolific offenders and organised gangs "is becoming genuinely one of the most significant issues facing UK communities".