Cracking down on one aspect of lawless Britain could improve life for us all

Shoplifting is costing high street stores a staggering £2.2billion a year and it's an affront to hard-working families who ultimately pay the bill in price rises that criminal gangs are able to stroll out of stores with armfuls of stolen goods. This gross unfairness is just one of the most blatant aspects of Britain's lawlessness crisis.

Some 530,643 offences were logged last year, an astonishing 20% rise on the previous 12 months.

Frankly, thieves are seeing very little deterrence and it's quite right that the Daily Express has launched a campaign to insist on police officers attending every single shoplifting incident. It will certainly help halt opportunist and first-time thieves. There's nothing more sobering than a uniformed officer, after all.

But it will also help reassure storekeepers who are often left alone to deal with increasingly violent offences committed against their employees. More than one in ten retail staff have been threatened with weapons over the last year. Thames Valley police commissioner Matthew Barber recently suggested shopkeepers should tackle thieves directly, but the real risk of injury is also matched by police frequently blaming have-a-go-heroes for assaulting criminals.

Mixed messaging is at the heart of this tsunami of crime with our Labour government intending to end jail terms of a year and less - meaning almost no shoplifters will face any jail time at all.

One prolific shoplifter in my home city of Bath was given a Criminal Behaviour Order after 30 thefts but went on to commit another 13 thefts and, only then, received eight months' jail time.

Presumably, now this will be replaced with a community sentence. This month, the Government will reward criminals with a new "soft justice" regime, abolishing all sentences shorter than a year. The intention is to stop over-crowding prisons, but professional criminals will only laugh at community sentences if they pay attention to them at all.

Banned from attending football matches and pubs, it's most likely prolific shoplifters will simply sit at home, watching matches on TV with piles of looted booze. It is little wonder drug addicts fund their addictions by looting stores and selling on the goods to drug-dealing gangsters. Even worse, organised crime has been much encouraged by the down-grading of shoplifting, and gangs, often made up of trafficked women and children, are upscaling their thefts to thousands of pounds per shop.

A private security guard working in London's West End recently claimed 70% of shoplifters he confronted were asylum seekers staying in taxpayer-funded hotels. The same guard said police only turned up to around two out of 10 incidents and if not, after four hours, stores have to let suspects go - only to see the same faces return time and again.

The idea that illegal migrants are not only getting free accommodation, food and benefits but are also helping themselves to goods from our shops is surely the most blatant example of taking us all for fools.

And someone has to pay for all these losses through higher costs to us - the law-abiding consumers. It has been estimated that shoplifting adds £133 to the cost of an average family's shopping bill each year It can also lead to shop closures.

WH Smith recently cited the shoplifting epidemic as one reason for selling its town centre branches, alongside higher retail taxes and declining consumer confidence. Even charity shops are reporting damaging levels of shoplifting.

Many stores in central London now operate a locked door policy, only allowing in genuine customers. What a dismal message for tourists. The Daily Express is to be applauded for demanding action against a crime wave that is threatening the very existence of our high streets.

It is only to be hoped the Government sticks by its pledge to recruit 3,000 more neighbourhood officers and police community support officers by next spring. It's essential that shoplifters and shop owners see town centres are being patrolled regularly by teams of uniformed police who can react immediately to shoplifting incidents.

The problem is that, having apprehended thieves, it's deeply disheartening to see the criminals receiving derisory sentences that do nothing to discourage them from repeat offending. It's only when shoplifters receive suitably heavy punishments that this modern scourge will be lifted.

More prisons plus more police officers is the only answer to this crime wave damaging the very heart of our country.