‘No excuse’ for shoplifting amid cost of living crisis, says policing minister
The cost of living crisis is “no excuse” for a rise in shoplifting, the policing minister has told Sky News, because the UK’s benefits system is “very generous”.
Chris Philp’s comments come amid escalating levels of retail thefts, with increases blamed on inflation, organised crime and a lack of focus from police.
Asked if he had any sympathy for people stealing to put food on the table, Mr Philp said gangs, criminal re-selling and drugs were largely to blame.
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A woman seen shoplifting. Pic: Sussex Police
“There really is no excuse for crime at all, including shoplifting… we’ve got a very generous benefits system of spending… the national minimum wage has just gone up,” the policing minister added.
A survey by the British Retail Consortium this year found levels of shoplifting in 10 major cities had risen by an average of 27% compared with 2022, costing businesses £1.76 billion over a 12-month period.
Sky News was invited to join Sussex Police’s Business Crime Reduction Partnership on a patrol in Brighton in the run-up to Christmas.
Field officer Nick Strickland said one supermarket in the centre of the city had a day when it saw 15 thefts in the first two hours it was open, with thieves targeting the store before security guards arrived.
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He says meat, dairy and butter are frequently taken because of rising prices and high resale values.
“Some stores don’t even put meat onto the shelves until they’ve got a security guard in the store… if you want something, you have to go and ask,” Mr Strickland said.
Sky News was also shown a clothes store that had been targeted by suspected organised criminals who stole whole racks of products.
“They’ll come in, usually by the door, and just wrap their hands around the coat hangers, lift them and either put them in a bag or just lift them and run out the front door,” Mr Strickland added.
Work cut out for those hoping to reduce shoplifting
“We’re just trying to locate this person who’s walked out with a rug and some other bits for the house.”
As far as shoplifting reports go, it was an unusual one to hear – but Sussex Police field officer Nick Strickland says incidents like this are now quite normal.
“You’d be surprised, we’ve had some art places where people have walked in and taken a piece of art,” he said.
While out on a patrol in Brighton, it took barely an hour for the first report of shoplifting to come in.
CCTV was quickly sent through showing an individual carrying a rug, vase and pillow and heading in the direction of Hove.
While this suspect limited their ambitions to one store, others are more wide-ranging in their scope.
“We’ve had people fill up suitcases with goods and just wheel it around town… there was food in there, stationery, alcohol, clothes – literally anything and everything,” Mr Strickland said.
Politicians and officers have vowed to get tough with shoplifting after a recent spike in cases.
Judging by the two hours we spent on the south coast, they’ll have their work cut out.
Field officer Nick Strickland of Sussex Police on a shoplifting patrol
The policing minister warned that a lack of focus on shoplifting by forces means there has been “no deterrence”.
Referring to looting that has taken place in some American cities, Mr Philp said: “The San Francisco case study… shows what happens when you have a permissive environment where the police don’t take further action, where you don’t have a zero-tolerance approach, you get these crime types simply escalating.”
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The Conservative police and crime commissioner for Sussex, Katy Bourne, who also leads on shoplifting nationally, agrees that retail crime hasn’t been taken seriously enough.
“There is a lot of demand on police time and some police forces perhaps don’t take shoplifting as seriously as they should… we do have finite resources and you have to put them where the need is great,” Ms Bourne said.
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In October, the Home Office announced a retail crime plan involving the creation of a team of specialist analysts to gather intelligence on gangs responsible for shoplifting.
Police forces also committed to attending more crime scenes, with facial recognition used to target offenders.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
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Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
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The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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