A Channel 4 series called Britain’s Shoplifting Gangs Exposed shines light on underworld of retail theft (Image: Channel 4)
An episode of ‘s Dispatches, Britain’s Shoplifting Gangs Exposed, airing on Monday night, has exposed a crime gang behind a wave of offences in the UK.
The country’s rate of shoplifting hit a 20-year high in October according to the Office for National Statistics – and one trepadacious reporter plunged into the shady underworld behind the crisis in the latest episode of the investigative current affairs programme.
While undercover and through a series of secretly-filmed interviews, Matt Shea managed to track down a Northampton-based gang leader wanted by UK police and confront him about his links to warehouses in the UK stacked with boxes of stolen Sudocrem, Sensodyne toothpaste and Lemsip cold and flu tablets.
The gang is wanted by the authorities for a string of thefts from Morrison’s supermarkets totalling £120,000 – and were handing the goods over to a local wholesaler, who was also tied up in an illegal visa marriage scam.
Gang leader Gugulan, who Matt was able to locate using social media, told him the products were being “sold in England, to Indians”. When pressed on the specifics of the operation, he burst out: “There are 1,000 Romanian thieves in England. Why are you coming to my house? Everyone steals in England and they sell it to the Indians. Why do they not go to the Indians to find the stolen goods?”
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Hundreds of boxes of stolen Morrison’s goods were found in a warehouse (Image: Channel 4)
A wholesaler who met with Romanian undercover journalist Victor, told him the goods were sold “across the globe”, adding: “Middle East, Africa, Europe, wherever I get the buyer, boom, sell it.”
The wholesaler, seemingly representing a company called Prime Value Distribution, then revealed that they also run an illegal visa programme, arranging marriages for Indian and Pakistani nationals who want to stay in the UK.
They say, on the hidden camera: “What happens is that after five years, the person gets settlement in the UK because my clients pay £250 every month to the person to stay married. It’s an arrangement, the government doesn’t know.”
The involvement of international crime gangs in seemingly innocuous high street theft shows “a thriving black market for shoplifting groups in the UK”, according to Channel 4.
A spokesperson added: “Someone is bringing people into the country, giving them lists of what to steal and helping them distribute goods through that black market. These individual incidents are just the visible part of a co-ordinated attack on the high street, by international criminals that see the UK as an easy target.”
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A prolific gang leader was tracked down by Channel 4 (Image: Channel 4)
It comes after a committee found that theft from shops was “not being tackled properly” earlier this month.
A letter from the Justice and Home Affairs Committee to Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson suggested that the term shoplifting was outdated and trivialises the “serious organised nature” of modern-day retail theft.
The letter continued: “The scale of the problem within England and Wales is totally unacceptable and action is vital and urgent. The perception of an inadequate response to tackling shop theft risks undermining confidence in the police and wider criminal justice system.”
Prime Value Distribution did not respond to a request for commment by Channel 4.