Shops forced to lock chocolate in plastic boxes to stop surge of thefts

LONDON: Shops have resorted to locking chocolate bars in plastic boxes because they have become such a target for thieves.

Owners say some big name brands are one of their most stolen items, with industry experts warning they are then being resold to fund wider criminal activity.

Some small businesses are seeing hundreds of pounds worth of chocolate stock swiped a week.

According to the BBC, police forces have evidence that crooks are now stealing bars to order.

Supermarket key giant Sainsbury’s has gone as far as using “boxes on products which are regularly targeted”, with £2.60 bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk locked up in one London branch. Tesco, and Co-Op are also said to be using the transparent boxes, which customers have to ask staff to open.

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Sunita Aggarwal, who runs two convenience stores in Leicester and Sheffield, said: “People are just coming in, and nicking boxes and boxes of chocolate. We know illicit trade is definitely on the up. As retailers, we know it goes on in front of us.”

Paul Cheema, owner of Malcom’s convenience stores in Coventry, said: “Chocolate is the new buzzword for organised crime.

It was razors, cheese, coffee. Today, these people that are taking stock from convenience stores, from supermarkets, it’s taken to order. So chocolate is primetime now.”

Police forces have posted videos online of chocolate being pinched from shops to highlight the issue.

They included West Midlands Police sharing CCTV footage of a man grabbing trays of chocolate from a shop in Stourbridge, and Wiltshire Police revealed how a man dragged a whole shelving stand of chocolate out of a shop door.