Shoplifting is costing Market Drayton retailers at least £7,500 a month, a Chamber of Trade survey has revealed this week.
Sixteen town centre shops were questioned for the survey which was carried out after concerns over the lack of shoplifting prosecutions.
Individual traders revealed they were losing between £100 and £3,000 a month and that security measures were being stepped up to combat the problem.
Chamber of Trade chairman Councillor Roy Aldcroft said he hopes to meet with police, traders and members of Shropshire Council’s crime reduction scrutiny committee before Christmas to discuss the issue.
He said: “We have a problem in Market Drayton which is mirrored across a number of other market towns.
“It’s getting beyond a joke and the first thing we need to do is to stop calling it shoplifting and call it theft because that’s what it is.
“One of the problems is it’s seen as antisocial behaviour and somewhere along the way, our community policing strategy has to be looked at.”
The survey’s findings follow Home Office statistics in September which showed that there were more than 320,000 shoplifting incidents in Britain last year, a rise of 10 per cent on 2007.
A Shopwatch scheme to prevent shoplifting already operates among a number of Market Drayton traders by way of a telephone link between themselves and the police.
Councillor Aldcroft said: “The CSO and police response is pretty good but there have been comments made that shoplifting is a fairly low priority crime, so other priorities take over.
“The police and Crown Prosecution Service expect the public to assist them with their enquiries but they seem very hesitant to prosecute people and it’s a serious issue.”
PC Martin Powell, Market Drayton’s local policing officer, said: “We respond to all reports of shoplifting and understand it’s a problem for traders.
“People do go to prison if they continually shoplift for relatively short periods of time, compared to other offences, but prison isn’t a nice place to be.
“We want to work alongside traders to make it uncomfortable for people if they want to shoplift.”
Speaking to the Advertiser in August, Shropshire’s chief crown prosecutor Colin Chapman denied they had a policy of not prosecuting shoplifters.
“In every case where there’s sufficient evidence and it’s in the public interest, offenders will be brought to justice,” he said.