A SPAR retailer in Wiltshire has pledged to continue using social media to name and shame alleged shoplifters after the move helped her retrieve the lost cost of the stolen goods.
Susan Connolly, the director of Connolly SPAR, an award-winning retail business with four SPAR stores in Wiltshire, has started using Facebook to post CCTV images of people stealing from her Wiltshire store.
Speaking to Asian Trader, Connolly vowed that she won’t be stopping this practice soon as shoplifting has gotten out of hand in her area and police are not paying much attention to smaller, singular cases, even though they are draining the business as well as the mental health of everyone involved in the store.
Over the past few weeks, Connolly has developed the habit of putting images of shoplifters on social media. Recently, she posted five different offenders’ pictures on Facebook and asked the community to identify them by telling them what they had done. The success rate is 100 percent each time, she said, as the offender always comes back and pays for what they stole.
She said, “Its not only teens but there are also some adults who are doing this. Stealing and shoplifting are seeing a general rise at the moment. So I decided to take images from CCTV of them in the act and make a nice little post on Facebook, even if we know who it is, just to send a strong message out there that we are watching and we will catch you.
“Normally community identifies and shares the name of the offender but in last five cases, offenders have come back and paid in full. I accepted payment and removed the post.
“I know there must be guidelines of posting someone’s image on social media, but it works wonderfully for me. As soon as they come in and pay, I do take the post down. In last five cases, which also included a very abusive lady in her 30s, I got my money back," she said.
“We normally didn’t have many cases in the past. Shoplifting and theft are not something we normally suffer from, but there's just a huge spike at the moment. Five instances in about four days is absolutely huge for us. We've never suffered like that before.”
The police are not doing much about it, said the retailer.
Susan Connolly's store raided in January 2024
Connolly said, “Police are not doing anything about small crimes. They are only interested in bigger organised gangs and prolific offenders. Like, back in January, when one of my stores was raided, the police turned up, took corrective action and managed to nab the gang as well. For smaller stuff, police don’t care."
A gang of burglars armed with axes and baseball bats targeted one of Connolly's stores on Jan 2, taking away £8000 worth of cigarettes and tobacco while causing £3000 worth of damage.
She added, “I joined a new initiative that was supposed to be a with local inspector once a month but that has not even started.”
Connolly also criticised Labour for axing the community sentencing of shoplifters.
"I feel retail crime and abuse of shop workers are not being addressed properly. There is lots of talks about it but no concrete actions. It's absolutely wrong," she said.
Connolly said she will continue posting pictures of offenders on Facebook even if she runs the risk of prosecution. The stores are equipped with facial recognition technology. Connolly stated that the tool works to a great extent but those who enter the store with an aim to steal, don’t care.
"Facial recognition is very effective. But after some point of time, if the person wants to steal, they won’t care if there's a camera," she said.
