How a prolific shoplifter's life was turned around

Shoplifting was once a way of life for Phil.

As a prolific thief operating in the West Midlands, he would snatch goods daily to fuel a drugs habit. "I was on heroin, I had a crack cocaine addiction," he said. "Every day was a gamble... the only way to cope was to shoplift."

He has since turned around his life, sharing with the BBC how he achieved the breakthrough.

It comes as new figures from the BBC Data Unit show tens of thousands of shoplifting offences every year are carried out by relatively few people.

As part of the unit's reasearch, police forces across England were asked for data on their area's top 10 suspects, with 270 linked to 28,415 offences during a six-year period between April 2020 and April 2026.

In Coventry, officers have been running a programme called Offending to Recovery, where they offer repeat offenders support.

Phi, who requested anonymity and whose real name has not been used in this article, took up that help and said it saw him break the cycle of stealing.

"It's over a year now, and I haven't offended," he said. "So I know I don't want to let that team down as well as myself."

The programme is paid for with money from Coventry City Council, retailers, and West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner's Office.

It comes after research found that 70% of retail crime is committed by people with addiction issues.

The project began with just one neighbourhood officer in Birmingham in 2018, but has since been rolled out in other parts of the West Midlands including Coventry.

It is expected to begin in Solihull over the next few months.

"They helped me out with all my health issues they got involved with every aspect of my life... like finances, living situations, the drug situation," Phil said.

Gary Chapman, the Offending to Recovery manager at West Midlands Police, said the scheme was not "an alternative option" to enforcement but was instead "to run alongside [it] to try and combat retail crime by addressing the actual fundamental reason why people commit retail crime, which is, a lot of the time, Class A drug or alcohol addiction."

Phil was still facing charges when he began to be supported by the Offending to Recovery team.

"I did have a few charges over my head when I first came into the programme, [the team] came to all my court appearances with me.

"The judges were very encouraging with me as well, obviously knowing I was on this programme."

The project has the backing of some of those on the frontline in the battle against shoplifters too.

Lewis Greaves, head of security at West Orchards Shopping Centre in Coventry, said: "There's some really good services out there like Offending to Recovery that are really trying to tackle the root cause of shoplifting rather than just getting people locked up or banning people."

Chapman believes the targeted support is working.

"We've got a desistance rate of between 75% and 86%, so that's a really good number considering the people that we're dealing with are in chronic addiction and are stealing every single day."

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