Eight years on from the worst experience of her career Natalie Lightfoot is still trying to heal. She lost £35,000 in two raids on her convenience store in the space of 20 days and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.
That resulted in her losing the child she was carrying.
Her confidence was lost too. For a time she was too fearful to open her shop on her own.
‘My whole world fell apart,’ she told a group of Scottish politicians a few days ago. ‘And to this day the pain never goes away. At this point I wanted to quit but, as an independent retailer, this isn’t an option.’
So Ms Lightfoot still owns and runs the store in Glasgow’s Baillieston which she bought as an ambitious 24-year-old with a first class honours degree in business management and organisation.
Natalie Lightfoot says shoplifters are becoming increasingly brazen
Ms Lightfoot’s Londis Convenience Store in Baillieston in Glasgow
Now 42, she has learned qualifications and business nous count for little in the face of a rising tide of retail crime and violence variously described by traders as ‘an epidemic’ and ‘anarchy’.
MSPs sat in thoughtful silence as Ms Lightfoot schooled them on the realities that shop owners and workers throughout Scotland are facing.
‘You could have heard a pin drop when I was talking,’ she later told the Mail. ‘I’m not a public speaker, but I think they needed to hear it.’
The mother of three described another dismal day when she watched two men march into her store, lift a crate of lager each, and walk out again. She was seven months pregnant at the time but still gave chase.
As she shouted at one of the men to return the stolen goods to the shop, she said he stopped, turned to her and screamed: ‘Stay the f*** away from me or I will kill you.’
She played the MSPs videos captured by her 11 CCTV cameras of thieves helping themselves to goods off her shelves at Londis Solo Convenience. Some are furtive; others brazen. Violence, threats and abuse may follow when they are challenged.
‘Here’s a culprit in action’ she said as she rolled her first clip for the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group for independent convenience stores. ‘There’s no real consequence – that’s why they repeat offend.’
She added: ‘What am I supposed to do? I contact the police after discovering the theft but nothing happens. I spend hours trawling CCTV footage to burn, I arrange and give my statements. But bottom line essentially [is] my money is gone. It makes me feel so angry; it feels personal. The first thing I say to shoplifters caught is you are stealing off my kids. I ask you how is this any different from you having your purse or wallet stolen?’
It was Co-op operations director Kate Graham who, earlier this month, warned that stores were descending into anarchy.
Thieves plunder items from stores safe in the knowledge there will be few consequences
Shoplifting in Scotland has rocketed by 35 per cent to a total of 38,674 cases in 2023-24
She told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘What we are seeing is blatant looting – people just coming in with a large bag and taking what they want because they are recognising the lack of consequence. We are seeing repeat offenders and we are seeing prolific shoplifting. People are stealing to order so this is absolutely not about the cost-of-living crisis.’
Figures released by the Co-op this week show the cost of shoplifting in its stores has surged by almost a fifth to £40 million in the first half of the year alone. Four Co-op staff a day are attacked.
According to Scottish Government’s own figures, the crime rocketed by 35 per cent in a single year to a total of 38,674 cases in 2023-24. The figure represents a 41 per cent rise on a decade ago – yet only includes incidents reported to the police.
Many shopowners have now given up telling the police about them – believing nothing will be done.
The Scottish Grocer’s Federation puts the cost of retail crime across the land at £62.9 million for 2023-24 and says nine out of 10 stores are reporting violence against staff at least once a week.
The deterrent is all but non-existent – a point which arises again and again in the Scottish retail industry. The justice system is so weakened under the SNP that shoplifting has been ‘decriminalised by stealth,’ said Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay.
Unlike many shop owners, Ms Lightfoot still reports every incident to Police Scotland.
She told the Mail: ‘They are honest with us that their hands are tied.
A suspected shoplifter captured by a Scottish store security camera helping himself to goods in a corner shop. Shoplifting offences have rocketed in recent years
Conservative MSP Mr Russell Findlay said retail violence was now ‘rife’ and some staff had already been killed whilst speaking in Holyrood
‘They come in and we report it, and we see in their eyes that we are wasting their time, which is why a lot of shopkeepers don’t report it.’
As for the 2021 Holyrood law making it a statutory offence to assault, threaten or abuse staff, ‘no one is really getting prosecuted on it,’ said Ms Lightfoot. ‘It is just another law that is sitting there unused.’
If the consequences for the criminals are minimal, they can be life-changing for shop owners and staff.
In April 2016, Ms Lightfoot opened her business to find it had been raided overnight. The thieves, believed to be part of an organised crime gang, cleaned out the shop’s tobacco supplies, broke into the safe and stole cash, took lottery scratchcards and, before they left, ripped out the CCTV hard drive.
Ms Lightfoot, who relocated from Bedford to run the store, told MSPs: ‘The insurance did not make a pay-out. I had to borrow money from family to help us keep going. In a matter of weeks I had gone from what was an amazing situation and enjoying the result of my hard work to losing what felt like everything.
Yet worse was to come. She made huge outlays on additional security measures which took 21 days to instal fully. Yet on day 20 it was raided again – the new roller shutter she had just installed peeled back like the top of a can of tuna.
‘They knew what awaited them on the other side, so they were determined,’ she said. This time they took more tobacco along with bags full of spirits.
As MSPs watched, Ms Lightfoot rolled the CCTV tape of this second raid, which again was not covered by insurance as the security installation was not quite complete.
No one was brought to justice for either raid.
Co-op operations director Kate McCrae Graham (Pictured) warned earlier this month that stores in Scotland were descending into anarchy
She said: ‘I had lost in total around £35k due to damage, stock and cash loss over the two break ins. I suffered severe PTSD from opening the store and just doing my job. During the two break-ins my husband was made redundant and I was the sole breadwinner.
‘I had a three-year-old girl I had to keep going for. But the stress from being responsible for everyone’s job, saving my business, paying all my bills and getting myself out of debt finally came out in my body. I was blessed to fall pregnant with my little girl’s sibling, but the stress was too much, and I miscarried.’
Throughout her attempts to heal, shop crime has carried on unabated. Behind the alarming statistics, real lives blighted; staff living in fear.
Much more recently, one of her shop assistants was attacked by two sisters who had been asked to leave because staff suspected they were planning to rob customers of their purses or wallets.
‘They followed a staff member and charged at her whilst she was waiting on a bus home,’ Ms Lightfoot told MSPs. ‘Who needs this from their job?’
That night, the employee rang to say she could no longer work in the evenings. ‘I can’t do this any more,’ she told her boss.
Ms Lightfoot concluded: ‘Crime has greatly affected me and my business over the last 17 years. The reason I wanted to speak today is to express and convey exactly how much.
‘So many injustices served. Eight years later, and I don’t think I am healed. There is more than just financial loss to the crime we face as independent retailers. Just like the postmasters, it impacts our personal lives in irreversible ways and this needs to be recognised.’
Kate Yule’s Corner Shop in Hawick in the Scottish Borders confessed she rarely tells authorities when shoplifters steal from her store
At Kat’s Corner Shop in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, owner Kat Yule admits she now rarely informs police when shoplifters strike.
That dates back to an armed robbery a few years ago when she was held at knifepoint by a young woman. She called the police and they arrived in numbers. Within hours she was arrested.
‘The next day, she walked past the shop, so she was let out,’ said Ms Yule. ‘That sort of set the scene for me. It doesn’t matter what they do. They can hold a knife to you, they can try to stab you, but the next day they’ll be out on the street.
‘I don’t feel it’s worth the police’s time either because what are they going to do? I know fine well myself that nothing is going to be done.’
Among the shop thieves contributing to the startling surge in the crime are vulnerable women and children trafficked from Eastern Europe specifically to shoplift.
RAC has been tracking the Glasgow-based group since 2019 and Ms Fraser confirmed it remains operational, shoplifting to order across the UK.
She said it was clear from video footage captured in stores that they were using ‘very young children’.
‘They’re still very active and they’re selling stock on at local markets. Some of it is very high value stock. Two of them walked out with a TV one day.’
Although many have been arrested for shoplifting, they are quickly released – especially if they are children – and the cycle continues.
Indeed, many assert that shoplifting is rocketing partly as a result of the kid gloves with which Police Scotland must treat young offenders.
Current Scottish Government guidance makes no bones about its agenda ‘to keep children out of the justice system.’
Under 18s have additional rights in police custody and sentencing of those under 24 must recognise that their culpability may be lower than an older person because their brains are still developing.
For Ms Fraser it all leads to the conclusion the justice system is ‘a mess’.
She said: ‘I’m quite happy to say that because we know some defendants have maybe got 40 cases and they’re still out there. Incarceration isn’t the answer to everything, however it is the answer for many of them. When you have someone who is violent and uses weapons they should be in a secure place.’
A Police Scotland spokesman told the Mail: ‘While we have seen an increase in reports of thefts by shoplifting, there has also been an increase in detection of this type of crime. Charges have been brought in nearly half of all reported incidents.
‘We work closely with the retail and business sectors to deter, prevent and investigate retail crime. Where we identify businesses which are being targeted by shoplifters, we have trained officers who can attend and carry out security surveys and offer advice around prevention.’
The Scottish Government said it recognises the ‘significant harm’ retail crime and encouraged stores to report all of them to the police.
The Scottish Government (Pictured: St Andrew’s House) has urged shops to inform police of crimes (file image)
‘While we have seen an increase in reports of thefts by shoplifting, there has also been an increase in detection of this type of crime,’ a Police Scotland spokesperson said (stock image)
A spokesman added: ‘While decisions on policing crime are operational matters for the Chief Constable, our Budget this year includes record police funding of £1.55 billion – an increase of £92.7 million. This will enable Police Scotland to increase officer numbers up to around 16,500-16,600.’
The evidence on the ground is many have already given up on an effective police response.
‘I wish for tougher consequences on criminals,’ said Ms Lightfoot. ‘I wish for the police not to have their hands tried when it comes to shoplifters.’
More realistically, perhaps, she is calling for an online portal for reporting shoplifting crimes without involving the police in the first instance – and grants for extra security.
If the thin blue line can no longer defend them, it seems they must defend themselves.
