Shoplifters blaming cost of living crisis for their crimes, police say

The head of a specialist Christchurch crime unit says some first-time shop lifters are blaming the cost of living for their crimes.

However, the bulk are recidivist offenders, facing multiple charges.

Retail NZ estimates retail crime costs about $2.6 billion a year.

In the last year, the Christchurch Retail Crime team has charged 272 people with more than 1100 shoplifting related offences.

Sergeant Melissa Shaw says they've also given out 300 trespass notices.

Shaw told Checkpoint while retail crime was a massive problem throughout the country, police were particularly focused on Christchurch.

"We've definitely seen an increase over the last few years in terms of retail crime, and I guess that's the reason why my team was established a year ago."

She said the number of people her team were dealing with was high, and that didn't account for all the offending that was occurring.

"We work in partnership with other police work groups, retailers and the community, so I would say that although those numbers are just for my team, they would definitely be more through the district wide."

Recently, she said the team had seen a number of people who hadn't come to police attention previously, many which were committing multiple offences.

Some of those have cited cost of living as the reason for their offending.

But Shaw said for most, it wasn't only the cost of living that was driving them to theft.

"There are many reasons why people offend, whether that's addiction, education. So there are definitely a lot of reasons that are different for every individual."

"There always tends to be the trend that we're seeing that people are telling us that there's many factors involved within these situations."

For many of the first-time offenders the team was encountering, Shaw said it came across as genuine that their motive was the high cost of living, and all they could do was take their word for it.

"We tend to do the preventative approach as well and get services on board to help support these individuals."

However, when it came to recidivist offenders, Shaw suspected a number of other factors were at play.

"[They] have obviously been in and out of the police system and we're seeing that it could be generational or those other factors that I have mentioned previously."

Shaw said the most common things being stolen were high ticket items, like clothing, fragrances and often meat.

"Anything that's easy to hand on and obviously get money for."

Thefts from supermarkets were a daily occurrence, with meat again being a common item, due to its high value.

Shaw said those thefts were often a combination of people aiming to make money off the stolen products, and people stealing for themselves.

Shaw said her while team was focused on arrests, providing alternative resolutions, such as preventive approaches was just as important.