Bluetooth headsets help mafia-style shoplifting gang evade security during UK supermarket

A Mafia-style shoplifting gang has stolen almost £100,000 of champagne goods from supermarkets using "professional" tactics to carry out raids across the UK.

Operating in groups of three, the gang members use bluetooth headsets to communicate and warn each other if security guards are watching them as they attempt to blend in with other shoppers perusing the aisles with a trolley or basket and casually removing champagne bottles from the shelves.

Then, one gang member will deliberately set off the security alarm to distract staff, while another simply strolls out of the store with the stolen haul.

"It's like a mafia-style operation. It's run like a business," says Sarah Bird from the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS) - an organisation which works with 100 businesses to tackle retail crime.

The criminals, who originate from Romania, have been dubbed "the champagne gang" by the organisation, as it is the main item they have focused on stealing due to a shortage in mainland Europe 18 months ago.

This caused by a post-Covid surge in demand and the failure of some crops led to a strong black market in the sparkling wine.

Investigators believe the gang has a clear hierarchy with people at the top who conduct a stream of employees across the country - with every member being paid.

Mrs Bird said: "They travel to a specific place, they have a shopping list of things they need to steal. They steal the goods and get a day rate."

Such has been the 'Champagne gang's' success their tactics are now being being replicated by other criminal groups nationwide.

The NBCS says it is tracking 63 organised criminal groups across the UK who have stolen at least £2.4m of goods in five years.

Of these, 26 groups originate from the UK and Ireland and the rest predominantly from Eastern European countries.

The champagne gang is so far responsible for 60 shoplifting incidents across the UK - from Gateshead to Bournemouth - according to NBCS data with their profits exceeding £73,000.

They came onto the NBCS's radar in early 2023, but have since started swiping other types of alcohol and meat to serve a new demand.

The group also adeptly change tactics when new technology comes into the market that might impact their operation.

"They were originally using trolleys to take goods out the stores," says Mrs Bird. "However retailers invested in trolley wheel technology to stop the trolleys at certain points in the stores.

"So they've started to now use baskets and bags to remove the goods."

While the gang typically operates in a group of three, during one theft in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, there were at least seven members in the shop.

Mrs Bird added: "We believe they took the opportunity in the Harrogate store as a training day for the new recruits - showing them the ropes and then effectively putting them to work.

"If they're caught, they're disposable. Generally speaking if they're arrested and charged they'll be bailed and quite often they'll move back to their country - in this case to Romania."

According to the BBC only two members of the group have been prosecuted so far, according to the NBCS, who say much of the stolen goods also end up overseas.

Intelligence, including from ANPR cameras - Automatic Number Plate Recognition - suggests the gang's vehicles drive to Europe with the goods inside.

"This acts as an effective supply chain. The goods are moved from the UK to the continent to be sold in the likes of Romania."

Retailers have repeatedly warned that shoplifting gangs are helping to fuel the rise in retail crime - and it is hitting shoppers in their pockets.

Shoplifting added £133 to the cost of an average UK household's annual shopping bill, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

But police chiefs claim a centralised unit established earlier this year is beginning to "turn the tide" against prolific shoplifters who steal for organised criminals.

The team at Operation Opal identified 152 people involved in organised crime in it's first three months of operation through a joined-up analysis of CCTV and dashcam footage, as well as crime reports and other evidence from all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Among the serial offenders was a Romanian man who arrived in the UK last year and within 12 months stole £60,000 worth of products from Boots.

Alexandru-Iulian Dima, 25, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to 32 shoplifting offences and Home Office officials are now in the process of securing a deportation order to return him to Romania.

Alex Goss, assistant chief constable at Merseyside Police and the NPCC's lead for retail crime, said: "This renewed focus, working alongside Opal's highly effective intelligence work...is showing a marked improvement in our response, dealing robustly with offenders and supporting retailers of all sizes."

Stephanie Coombes, head of intelligence at Opal added: "Opal has been carrying out this role for other crime types for a number of years and we have seen significant successes from having a national overview of what's happening in the organised crime world."

A report earlier this year found that a joint operation between the police and 15 of the biggest retailers had established that a quarter of all shoplifting in England and Wales was being carried out by criminal gangs.

A taskforce, known as Project Pegasus, sifted through thousands of hours of CCTV and bodycam footage, as well as testimonies from staff to create a "shoplifting map".

After two months of analysis, including use of facial recognition software, the taskforce discovered that the crime wave is being turbo-charged by as few as 12 gangs.

Britain is currently in the midst of a shoplifting crisis, as police figures recently showed offences have soared by 30 per cent in a year to the highest level in two decades.

Almost 444,000 crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months.

This is the highest figure since records began in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But industry figures say underreporting means shoplifting is even more endemic than currently thought, with many store owners not bothering to report offences to overwhelmed police and criminal gangs operating without any fear of being caught.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, Director, Centre for Retail Research, said the rise of shoplifting was being driven by the perception that it was a risk-free crime.

He said: "At one time, shoplifting used to be a sort of craft where people didn't want to get caught because they knew they'd be trouble, but now people don't even bother because there's a perception nothing much will happen to you.

"A lot of retail crime now is organised, with people stealing large quantities of products like alcohol, meat and designer clothes. They are linked to other criminals who sell it on elsewhere.

"The fact thefts below £200 are not pursued and there are a lot of demands on officers mean retailers have found it very difficult to get the kind of support they require.

"Meanwhile, managers have become increasingly concerned about the violence that apprehending shoplifters can involve so are telling their employees not to risk it.

"So you've got two issues - shoplifting being partly decriminalised and the fact the police are too busy, then retailers telling shop staff not to intervene."