SHOPLIFTING is not only the bane of businesses, for it robs every one of us - as the cost theft is added to that of the product.
How encouraging, then, is the success of the fight-back thought up by Hyndburn beat bobby PC Jason Marsden.
For the strategy he set up with town-centre traders in Accrington - that of excluding anyone charged with shoplifting from the stores in the scheme and threatening to sue them for trespass if they defy the ban - has resulted in the shops being made off-limits for 41 people, with just eight re-offending and four of those convicted being jailed.
The scheme is clearly a deterrent that works. It deserves congratulations - and being copied across the country.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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