The short answer: shoplifting under £200 is still a crime in the UK, and police can attend — but under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 it is treated as a summary-only offence, and in practice many forces deprioritise attendance unless there is violence, a repeat offender, or packaged evidence. That gap between the law and day-to-day enforcement is why so many retailers feel low-value theft "isn't investigated" — and why the Government has pledged to scrap the threshold.

The perception vs the law

Section 176 of the 2014 Act made theft of goods worth £200 or less from a shop a summary offence, triable only in a magistrates' court — widely (if not entirely accurately) read as "low-value theft won't be attended". The Government has since pledged to scrap the threshold (gov.uk), but the perception fuels repeat offending today.

The scale of the problem

The numbers explain the pressure on both stores and forces: the BRC's latest crime survey counted 20.4 million theft incidents against UK retailers in a year — roughly 55,000 every day — at a direct cost of £2.2bn, while police recorded 509,566 shoplifting offences in the year to December 2025. Most incidents are individually "low value", which is exactly what the threshold covers. See our full 2026 UK retail theft data roundup for the sourced figures.

Why good evidence flips the odds

Forces are far more likely to act on clear, packaged evidence: a timestamped clip, the items taken, and a recognisable sequence. Repeat offenders in particular — a large share of retail theft — can be escalated with a documented pattern rather than a one-off report. That's exactly what AI produces automatically.

From "nothing we can do" to a usable case file

De Flow AI captures the incident, links it to the till exception, and produces an evidence package on the spot — supporting reporting, civil recovery and banning orders. Analytics highlight prolific offenders worth escalating.