Arresting shoplifters is pointless when the courts keep on setting them free a police chief has declared, with the commissioner describing the legal system's current approach as 'madness'.
Katy Bourne, the national lead for shoplifting at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, has hit out at the lack of an 'effective deterrent' for shoplifters carrying out more crimes.
Insisting that it is 'madness' that the thieves blighting Britain's retailers are often not being put behind bars, Ms Bourne told the Telegraph: 'People have got to know that they're going to get caught, and that there's a meaningful deterrent when they do.
'There is no point arresting shoplifters if there is no effective deterrent.'
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex said that as a result of prisons being at capacity, many offenders are avoiding facing time in jail.
