NEWS FEATURE
10 ASIAN TRADER 4 APRIL 2025
s retail crime surges into more violent
territory, the UK’s convenience sector
is cracking. Yet amid the chaos, hope
flickers in grassroots action and in the
promise of new legislation, finds Asian Trader.
March saw a series of hard-hitting reports
released back-to-back, each painting a grim
picture of retail crime across the
UK. Whether looking at the
convenience sector or the broader
retail landscape, the message was
chillingly consistent – a disturbing
spike in theft, abuse, violence,
armed robbery, and hate crime.
Among the worst hit are
convenience stores – often small,
independently run businesses with
minimal security where usual retail
staf are told to keep an eye on the shop floor
for any suspicious activities.
But seemingly gone are the days of petty
theft and sneaky shoplifters. Today, brazen
gangs storm in, clear shelves without
hesitation, ready to abuse, hit, punch, or spit
when confronted.
Take retailer Amit Puntambekar, who runs
Ash’s Shop in Cambridgeshire. Earlier this
year, he was punched in face by a young
woman whom he saw on CCTV footage
stealing vapes, leaving him with bloodied
nose and lacerations below his eyes.
Operating for the last 40 years, Puntam-
bekar store is the lifeline of Fenstanton
village, yet it loses hundreds of pounds’ worth
of goods per week to theft.
Taking over from his parents in 2017,
As criminals get aggressive and violent, the
convenience sector teeters on the edge, grasping
at grassroots solutions and legislative reforms
for hope, says Pooja Shrivastava
These attacks don’t stop at the shop door;
they leave emotional scars on the entire
families.
“No one thinks of the knock-on conse-
quences. With the government piling on
costs, this could cause many small businesses
to close,” she adds.
Her store is the only bank in town. If it
closes, residents will have to face a “three-
hour round trip to access cash”.
“We employ 16 members of staf on
permanent contracts so again this would be
devastating for the town if we were to close,”
she says.
Organised Gangs
According to the latest ACS Crime Report,
more than half of convenience retailers have
seen a rise in anti-social behaviour near their
stores. And it’s not just rowdy teens or
opportunistic thieves but highly organized
gangs at play, too.
In Oxfordshire, SPAR
Minster Lovell, run by retailer
Ian Lewis, has been serving
shoppers since 1937. Yet that
does not make it immune to
crime.
The store was targeted in
September last year though the
men could not break in.
However, it did not have the
same luck on Boxing Day.
During the early hours of December 27, a gang
struck again. This time not only did they break
into, but they attached the store’s cash
machine (which was at the rear) with a Land
Rover and tore it apart, dragging it all the way
out, damaging the chiller on the way.
Apart from taking the cash machine that
had about £2,500 inside, the criminals left
behind a badly damaged store, £1,000 worth
of spoilt stock, a ruined front door and a badly
shaken family sleeping upstairs when the
ram-raid occurred.
These are simply some examples of crime
levels that retailers are dealing with. Clearly,
crime has not only increased but criminals are
now also more violent, fearless and organised.
Retailer Benedict Selvaratnam operates a
Convenience cracking under crime
Puntambekar had dreams of growing the
business further. Today, those dreams
hang by a thread.
Amid high levels of crime and
“complete apathy” from the authorities,
he has often expressed on social media his
inclination of “selling the business and
leaving retail altogether”.
Elsewhere, in Wales, the
situation is no better.
In a picturesque seaside town,
award-winning store Tenby Stores
& Post Ofce has some of the most
advanced crime prevention
measures. However, they still tend
to fall short when humanity decides
to stoop to its lowest.
Just last month, store owner and
veteran retailer Fiona Malone was spat at by a
teenager whom she caught stealing from her
shop. Last year in August, her husband Vince
Malone was punched by another ofender.
This is not an isolated incident, as this
seaside store has been bearing the brunt of the
surge in retail crime to record levels, amount-
ing to £20000 to £30000 each
year.
Fiona told Asian Trader,
“Overall, society needs to
acknowledge that shop crime
isn’t victimless and that it is
wrong.
“People think it’s ok, the
shops can aford it; which we
can’t, and ultimately it could put
us out of business.”
Fiona and Vince Malone
Amit Puntambekar
Crime in convenience
Highlights of Association of
Convenience Stores (ACS) Crime Report
492,914 incidents of shop theft recorded while 6.2 million incidents estimated
Over 59,000 incidents of violence
1.2 million incidents of verbal abuse;44 per cent of verbal abuse incidents are
hate-motivated,
Over 10,000 incidents of burglary reported, costing £3,591 per store per incident
87 per cent of store colleagues faced verbal abuse
34 per cent of crime involved a knife while 31 per cent involved another weapon.
Cost of crime was £316 million annually, costing £6,259 per store per year.