On the evening of May 16, a group of over half a dozen teenagers entered Grove Hill Stores in Tunbridge Wells town centre, when an individual was spotted trying to steal items while the others spread out inside the store to ‘distract’ staff, business owner Sanjay Masrani told the Times.
“We had CCTV footage of him stealing. The other guys were trying to distract my staff,” he said. “My staff saw him and detained him and the others ran out.
“We locked the door and called the police, but they took 45 minutes to come. In the meantime, they [the youths] tried to break down the door.”
Footage taken from across the road showed a group of young people around the front of the store in broad daylight, kicking at the glass door.
The door is seen to come off its hinges at one point, followed by someone inside trying to lift the frame back into the doorway as a barrier.
After a month-long investigation, Mr Masrani says that rather than prosecute the boys, Kent Police has simply made one of them write an apology – a decision he brands as ‘ridiculous’.
“For retailers at the moment, there’s not much help from the Police. With normal shoplifting, you just get a crime number now. But for shoplifting you cannot claim on the insurance.
“But this decision is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” said Mr Masrani.
Kent Police justified the apology saying it was a ‘proportionate’ response.
A spokesman said: “When a crime is reported to Kent Police a thorough and proportionate investigation is launched with all appropriate lines of enquiry followed up.
“For the incident reported in Tunbridge Wells, officers were called to a report that a suspected shoplifter had been detained in the store. Officers attended the scene and following an investigation a community resolution was decided upon as the most appropriate outcome in relation to the attempted theft.
“A community resolution is a proportionate way of dealing with an offender when they admit the offence, fully in line with national guidelines, and in most cases when the victim has agreed that more formal action does not need to be taken.”
The spokesman added that the police were still appealing for information about those who committed the criminal damage to the shop.
He said: “Officers also conducted a full investigation into this incident and continue to appeal for information from the public to help identify those involved.”
