Rise in shoplifting and theft in UK finds nine in 10 retailers in rural areas targeted

Nine in 10 retailers based in rural locations have been victims of crime in the past 12 months, according to research, underlining the widespread impact of the rise in shoplifting and theft even in more remote parts of the UK.

Rural retailers include farm shops as well as stores selling machinery and other equipment. The financial cost of crime for each affected retailer was on average £83,000 during the past year, according to a survey carried out by the commercial insurer NFU Mutual. Meanwhile, one in 20 victims said crime had cost them more than half a million pounds.

Retailers based in inner cities reported experiencing the highest level of crime, with 94% suffering an incident over the past year. However, this was followed closely by retailers in urban areas (91%) and in rural locations (91%).

John Harris of the Broadditch farm shop in Kent says a break-in and theft ‘felt personal, like a gut punch’. Photograph: John Harris

Almost a quarter of rural retailers surveyed by NFU Mutual had suffered on more than six occasions, equivalent to an incident taking place every other month.

Meanwhile, only 5% of rural retailers who had fallen victim to crime over the past year only suffered one incident.

John Harris, a farmer and owner of Broadditch farm shop near Gravesend in Kent, is one of this small minority of business owners. Despite this, the break-in and theft at the farm shop last Easter have left a lasting impact.

“It felt personal, like a gut punch. It was a weird, horrible feeling,” said Harris, who has run the farm shop with his brother Mark since 1990, when they began selling homegrown fruit and vegetables and other produce from a building formerly used for cleaning, sorting and packing apples.

The farm shop was broken into late at night over the Easter weekend, when the perpetrator forced open a skylight. They then smashed through inner glass doors, before pushing the shop’s safe down a flight of stairs and wheeling it out of the building.

“We normally don’t leave money in the shop, but because of the way the weekend fell, there was more in the safe than normal,” Harris said.

The stolen safe contained £5,000 of takings, while the perpetrator also made off with two donation pots for the local hospice. Despite having CCTV inside the shop, the Harrises only discovered what had happened the following day. A man was subsequently charged with the crime, but the case has not yet been heard in court.