Shoplifters to be banned from Basingstoke town centre

2:59pm Friday 11th January 2013 in Local By Chris Gregory

SHOPLIFTERS will be banned from Festival Place and The Malls under a new initiative announced today.

The scheme is supported by Hampshire Constabulary, who will pass on photos of those involved in theft offences, or anti-social behaviour, to both shopping centres.

Steven Connolly, centre director at Festival Place, said: “We are pleased to be working in partnership with both the police and The Malls on this initiative to ensure the town continues to be a safe and welcoming environment to all of our visitors.”

Paul Littlehales, shopping centre manager at The Malls, said: “We are pleased to be part of the Basingstoke Town Centre Partnership, to ensure that the small minority who wish to disrupt Basingstoke’s excellent shopping environment, will be dealt with quickly, correctly and in agreement with our other partners.”

Town Centre Inspector Marcus Cator said police officers regularly patrol both shopping centres and will take appropriate action against those committing crimes and behaving anti-socially.

Comments(11)

wight1337 says...
4:07pm Fri 11 Jan 13

Surely shopping centre security are already aware of people who have previously been convicted of shoplifting as they would have been identified from CCTV images, and they would therefore already be ejected as soon as they are spotted again on CCTV. Why then do they need the police to supply them with photos?

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Folkestone Saint says...
4:35pm Fri 11 Jan 13

wight1337 wrote:
Surely shopping centre security are already aware of people who have previously been convicted of shoplifting as they would have been identified from CCTV images, and they would therefore already be ejected as soon as they are spotted again on CCTV. Why then do they need the police to supply them with photos?
The story is of them now being banned as they were not before

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wight1337 says...
4:45pm Fri 11 Jan 13

If thats the case its been a pretty daft policy up to now for a privately run shopping centre not to ban known shoplifters.

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BugBear says...
5:25pm Sat 12 Jan 13

These people should be named and shamed, just like in the old days of the stocks. Sod human rights, they should be humiliated, if more people were our society would immediately begin to improve.

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OldHarriet says...
11:59am Sun 13 Jan 13

Good- this criminal and anti social behaviour needs to be stamped on. Have lived in parts of London where this criminal activity has become the norm, local communities ignoring it or resigning themselves to it's tolerated existence as part of modern urban living. It is a crime, often funds drug addictions and causes losses necessitating price increases to law abiding people. Stamp it out now in Basingstoke and enforce the law.

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Hooked on you says...
12:20pm Mon 14 Jan 13

I witnessed a couple (Man and Wife) coming out of Tesco's with armfuls of meat under their arm. When I saw them put the meat in their carrier bag I over heard the wife say, that saves us some money thank you Tesco.

I was going to report them but it was too late because they had already gone.

I wonder if they make a trip to Tesco's every saturday so that they can save money on meat for the week.

Shocking, I hope they get caught.

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Sam_Walker123456 says...
2:34pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Hooked on you, how do you know they had been shoplifting? I have come out of many supermarkets with armfuls of meat and been grateful for the money saved. Most supermarkets make enormous reductions to the the prices of their perishables to clear stock before they go out of date. Anyway, most expensive meat is tagged to alert security of attempted theft.

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Hooked on you says...
4:44pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Because I was so taken back on the speed of which they were picking up the meat with no basket and putting it under their arms. I decided to follow them. They didn't go to the tills but walked out. This was about 11.30 a.m. Whether the meat is tagged or not it's still stealing.

I would be able to recoginze them if I saw them again. They were in their late 50's tall and shabbly dressed. I hope they are reading this because one day you WILL get caught.

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Sam_Walker123456 says...
11:53am Wed 16 Jan 13

Let's get this right Hooked on - you witnessed a crime from start to finish and did not report it. You even know the criminals are a married couple.
If you had alerted Tesco staff, even if it was too late to catch the culprits, they could have checked their cctv to see if they could identify the couple (many shoplifters are repeat offenders) and your witness statement would have been invaluable to a successful prosecution.
You hope that one day they will be caught - not if witnesses keep quiet they wont!

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red teacosy says...
10:49pm Thu 17 Jan 13

Hooked on you wrote:
I witnessed a couple (Man and Wife) coming out of Tesco's with armfuls of meat under their arm. When I saw them put the meat in their carrier bag I over heard the wife say, that saves us some money thank you Tesco.

I was going to report them but it was too late because they had already gone.

I wonder if they make a trip to Tesco's every saturday so that they can save money on meat for the week.

Shocking, I hope they get caught.
Was it horse meat?

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Hooked on you says...
12:00pm Fri 18 Jan 13

In reply to Sam_Walker's comments. Yes I witnessed a crime from start to finish, and yes under normally circumstances I would have gone back into Tesco's but I was so shocked and scared I didn't know what to do, I couldn't bring myself to say anything to them because you don't know these days what might happen, he could have been carrying a knife for all I knew. Maybe I should have gone back into Tesco's but I couldn't quite comprehend what I had just witnessed. I felt so sick I had to cut short my shopping trip and drive home.

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