Just 29,000 criminals cost the public purse £5 billion a year through prolific shoplifting, theft and violence, a landmark study reveals.
It found that tens of thousands of repeat offenders were responsible for 130,000 crimes a year, ranging from burglary to assault.
Researchers attempted to quantify the impact on the public sector, including the health service and local councils, on top of the cost to businesses from stolen goods and aggression towards staff.
They calculated that it cost the public purse up to £5 billion a year, equivalent to £172,000 per offender, recorded and unreported crime.
This is through the cost of injuries, damage, enforcement, imprisonment and support for drink and drug addiction and poor mental health.
This persistent, low-level crime has a really pernicious effect on society
In Britain, shoplifting has hit a record high, with 530,643 offences recorded by police over the year to March 2025, up a fifth on the previous year.
Retailers estimate that 70 per cent of thefts from their stores are committed by around 10 per cent of shoplifting offenders.
The study, by the consultants Newton Europe and charity Revolving Doors, focused on a cohort of prolific offenders convicted of eight or more crimes.
Ben Harris, a director at Newton Europe, said: “This persistent, low-level crime has a really pernicious effect on society more generally and a really significant effect on our public services.”
Repeat offenders are defined as the “revolving door” cohort because they are regularly in and out of prison for low-level offences.
Six in 10 of these criminals were found to have “unmet needs”, which meant that problems such as family difficulties and longstanding behaviour issues.
“That has a really worrying, very traceable correlation with the likelihood of reoffending in the long-term,” said Mr Harris, who presented the findings at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool alongside prisons minister Lord Timpson.
The Government is proposing a new presumption against sentences under one year, claiming that criminals will be less likely to reoffend if handed community service instead.
But shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has attacked Labour’s proposals as a “soft-on-crime approach”.
The full report is due to be published on Monday, October 20.
