STORE bosses could send in bailiffs to shoplifters' homes to get back some of the money it costs to catch them.

Winfields, one of East Lancashire's biggest retailers, is to write to people convicted of stealing from its Haslingden store to ask for a payment towards the cost of their anti-shoplifting operation.

If they don't pay up, the shoplifters will be taken through the civil courts - and if they still don't pay the firm will instruct bailiffs to take personal possessions.

In common with other major retailers, Winfields loses tens of thousands of pounds a year to shoplifters, both through opportunist theft and organised 'raids'.

In the last two weeks alone, 10 shoplifters have been caught at the store.

Although many of them are prosecuted or cautioned, the criminal courts rarely award compensation to stores for their costs in processing shoplifters and even if they do the shoplifters often don't pay up.

New head of security at Winfields Phil Johnstone has brought in the 'get tough' policy after successfully launching a similar scheme in his previous job in the Midlands.

"Catching a shoplifter and then helping prepare a case against them costs us a considerable amount of time and money," explained Mr Johnstone. "When staff see someone acting suspiciously in the store a security guard has to follow them for an average of 20 minutes.

"If they are caught, we then have to sit with them and wait until the police arrive - they're busy enough as it is so it often takes an hour or more to arrive.

"Then we have to write up statements and there is also the cost of the CCTV equipment and the video tape."

The firm calculates that an average shoplifting case costs them £50 rising to £100 for a more complicated one. Mr Johnstone said that in other areas of the country the initiative had been successful.

"There has been a 70 per cent success rate of people paying up when they were sent a letter asking for our costs to be reimbursed.

"People don't like the idea of going to a civil court and having a county court judgement against them which means they are credit blacklisted.

"And we never had a repeat offender in my previous store. They also know that if they don't pay up we can send bailiffs in."

A spokesman for the British retail Consortium which represents the major store chains said a pilot scheme was currently under way into civil recovery schemes like the one Winfields has launched.

He said: "We believe the scheme does work in reducing the losses incurred by stores and the incidence of shoplifting."

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