‘Fantastic news for residents’ as borough policing team solves 85 per cent of all shoplifting reports

A Surrey Police team is turning the tide on shoplifters – as officers solve 85 per cent of the retail crime cases they are tasked with investigating.

There has been a huge rise in reports of retail crime in Spelthorne after the borough’s Safer Neighbourhood Team, led by Inspector Matt Walton, urged the business community to report every incident.

At a residents’ meeting in Ashford town centre last week, Inspector Walton and Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Ellie Vesey-Thompson shared news of the Force’s recent successes.

Reports of retail crime are up by almost 150 per cent in Spelthorne, and around a quarter of all retail crime cases reported in the borough are solved. A huge 85 per cent of all retail crime cases assigned to Insp Walton’s team have been solved in the past three months as the team aim to bring every offender to justice.

Insp Walton said: “Until very recently, we had seen a sustained increase in crime across Spelthorne of between one and two per cent a year. However, over the last couple of months, that has changed, and there has been a decrease of 4.7 per cent in Spelthorne.

“We have made sure that we are maintaining our community engagement, with the key message that all crime should be reported to us. In some areas, this has seen a large spike in reporting. We know that when reports of crime drop, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s less crime, but rather that there’s less confidence in reporting crime. I’d urge anyone affected by criminality to keep reporting it.”

Church Road in Ashford is one of four ‘hotspots’ in the borough, alongside the Elmsleigh Centre and Two Rivers in Staines, and Sunbury Cross.

Surrey's Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend has secured £1million from the Government to fund additional policing resources in hotspot areas across the county.

Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Ellie Vesey-Thompson said: “I was delighted to join the residents’ meeting in Ashford and answer questions on crime and policing in the town. A huge amount of work is going on across Spelthorne to tackle the criminality that blights our communities, including anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls, and retail crime.

“Church Road in Ashford has recently been designated as a ‘hotspot’, which means there will be more high-visibility patrols - fantastic news for residents. Over the past two months alone, there have been 60 extra foot patrols.”