Rishi Sunak in Sussex: Police respond to shoplifting incident during Prime Minister's visit to tackle retail crime

On his visit to West Sussex on Wednesday (April 10), Rishi Sunak met with Horsham MP Jeremy Quin, Sussex Police Crime and Commissioner Katy Bourne, and Chief Constable Jo Shiner, to discuss new legislation – with assaults on retail workers to be made a standalone criminal offence.

Shoplifting was also discussed during the visit, with Mr Sunak pictured talking with staff at the Boots store in Swan Walk.

Dozens of police officers were on guard – and were called into action after a man stole from a nearby shop.

“A shoplifting incident at Tesco Express in Horsham town centre was reported to police around 9.40am on Wednesday (April 10),” a spokesperson for Sussex Police confirmed.

"The suspect, who is known locally to officers, was reported to have stolen three bottles of wine.

“An officer engaged with staff at the store and the suspect was detained in the vicinity shortly afterwards.

“The alcohol was seized and returned to the store in a sellable condition, and staff confirmed they were satisfied with this and that they did not wish to pursue further action.

“The suspect was directed to leave the area and will be dealt with by way of a Community Protection Warning.”

Whilst this was happening, Mr Sunak was speaking to reporters in the Boots store about how an area of ‘increasing concern’ in the retail climate is shoplifting.

"People would have seen it happens on social media, it's absolutely not acceptable,” he said. “It's particularly not right that our shop workers are having to deal with it.

“And I understand this acutely having grown up working in my mum's a small pharmacy shop in Southampton. Today we outlined a range of measures to help us clamp down on retail crime, including a new offence for assaulting a retail shop worker. This has been welcomed but also greater use of electronic tagging and monitoring of prolific offenders and then lastly the use of facial recognition technology and CCTV to catch and apprehend people.”