Drop in retail crime offences in Doncaster city centre as over 60 shoplifters jailed so far in 2025

Retail crime is not a victimless crime, and affects local businesses, the wider local economy, shoppers and hard-working staff who shouldn't have to deal with criminality in the workplace.

Since last year, Doncaster Central Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) have made great strides in combatting shoplifters and associated criminality by introducing a dedicated retail crime team who work across a multitude of cases and have been able to spot repeat patterns of offending.

This week, the team have worked alongside the NPT as a whole and other departments to tackle retail crime as part of ShopKind - a national campaign encouraging kindness and respect towards shop workers.

The campaign returned on Monday (30 June), with the launch coinciding with the first of two days of action, which resulted in a number of being people arrested and charged.

One man was arrested and charged in connection with an alleged break-in at a city centre pub, with Charlotte Sherriff arrested on suspicion of breaching the terms of her Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO), which prevented her from entering Frenchgate Shopping Centre.

Two men who were wanted on recall to prison were also arrested, with one man charged in connection with a reported theft at Matalan and a woman also charged with burglary.

Tuesday (1 July) saw even more arrests and charges, with investigations underway to look to obtain CBOs against two persistent offenders who were arrested in Frenchgate Shopping Centre after allegedly committing multiple public order offences.

Sergeant Steve Roberts, who was responsible for setting up the new dedicated retail crime team, said: "We're proud to support the ShopKind campaign and take part in this week of action, with these two days of activities providing the public with a snapshot of the diligent work taking place day in, day out to tackle retail crime.

"We utilised a range of tactics, including deploying plain clothed and uniformed officers around the city centre, which has led to multiple arrests and charges, with stop and searches conducted and even the seizure of counterfeit perfumes.

"This has been an excellent team effort involving different departments and agencies coming together for a highly visible policing operation in the city centre."

Statistics show that in the first four months of 2025, the Doncaster Central NPT area saw a 24 per cent reduction in reports of shoplifting when compared to the first four months of the previous year.

In the first six months of 2025, over 60 people have been jailed for a combined total of over 25 years for theft offences committed in the Doncaster Central NPT area.

Sgt Roberts continued: "We have recognised the harm caused by retail crime in Doncaster city centre and the surrounding area, which prompted us to re-think our approach, and introduce a dedicated team whose job is to capture evidence, obtain victim and witness statements, compile and check CCTV footage and task PCSOs to different retail crime investigations.

"They have also built strong relationships with businesses and key partners, which has ensured that information about prolific offenders is shared quickly among retailers and partner agencies.

"This has led to us being able to identify offenders much earlier on in the process and we are grateful to businesses who are reporting incidents of retail crime to us.

"We investigate every reported incident of shoplifting and as the figures show, we are seeing immediate custodial sentences being handed out by the courts.

"We won't tolerate threats, abuse and assaults made towards retail staff and we will go after thieves carrying out despicable crimes on our local businesses."

If you have been a victim of retail crime, please report it immediately so officers can act and investigate thoroughly.

If you are reporting a crime that is in progress or a life is at risk, always call 999.

Otherwise, please use the non-emergency reporting methods, including calling on 101 or reporting crime online via the portal: www.southyorkshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime.