A NEW study analysing the most recent official police data has revealed the locations that were the most affected by shoplifting in England and Wales over the past year.

With 360 shoplifting incidents reported in 2016, the East Hampshire district had the second lowest number of incidents in the whole county. But the figure was up a huge 25.4 per cent from 287 thefts in 2015..

East Hampshire also had the second lowest shoplifting rate (the number of incidents as a percentage of the population for the area) out of the 14 areas in the region, with one incident per 328 people.

The shoplifting hotspots in East Hampshire were the High Street shopping area in Petersfield, the area around the Co-operative Food supermarket in Waterlooville, and the area around Waitrose in Petersfield.

Hampshire Constabulary handled 12,055 incidents in 2016, which was up 11.4 per cent on the previous year’s figure of 10,819. When weighted by population, the region had the 18th highest shoplifting rate out of 42 police force areas in England and Wales, with one incident reported per 162 people.

The Hampshire locations with the highest number of shoplifting incidents were around Above Bar Street in Southampton, the area around Asda Southampton Central, and the city’s West Quay Shopping Centre.

Weighted by population, Portsmouth and Southampton had the highest shoplifting levels in the region.

Linda Firth, from LoveMyVouchers.co.uk, said: “Shoplifting doesn’t just affect the retailers, it also affects consumers as the losses are typically recouped through higher retail prices. With such a high portion of the population already struggling to make ends meet, the affect of increasing retail prices to account for the costs of shoplifting could have a significant impact on budgets.”

The study found that at 362,499, the total number of shoplifting incidents in England and Wales during 2016 was up 7.6 per cent from the previous year.