Member of Parliament for Burton, Kate Kniveton, visited Winshill Co-op today (26/04/24) to meet with staff and to hear about the issues they have been facing with antisocial behaviour as well as incidents of a more serious nature.
The Local MP met with Paul Dennis, Chief Operating Officer; Lee Dillow, Head of Trading Support and Stacey Newson, Loss Prevention Advisor for Central Co-op, and staff of the Church Hill Street store. Back in February, an unknown male entered the Winshill store and threatened staff before leaving the store having emptied the cash register. The incident was reported to Staffordshire Police, with Coop staff praising the police response and support on the day of the incident as well as ongoing support from the local PCSOs.
Earlier this month, the Government announced a further crackdown on retail crime as part of the Home Office’s Retail Crime Action Plan published in October 2023. New measures have been announced by the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, to equip police forces with new facial recognition tools, introduce a new specific offence for assaulting shop workers as well as sentences for shoplifters breaching bans from stores and more tagging of prolific shoplifters.
Commenting, Kate Kniveton said:
“Today, I visited the Co-op in Winshill to meet and speak with staff affected by a small minority of people who think it is okay to steal from our shops and threaten their staff.
“I commend Staffordshire Police in dealing with the recent incident at this store and the Co-op management for the support they are providing to their staff. No one should be nervous going to work or be threatened by others in their place of work.
“Our local economy and community cohesion relies on having strong and safe high streets and neighbourhood shops. Shoplifting and assaults on retail staff puts that at risk. That is why, the Government is introducing tougher measures to deter and punish those who commit such an act.”
