Police have made more than 1,000 arrests for shoplifting in Essex since the start of the year.

New data from Essex Police has revealed that their officers made 1,025 arrests for shop theft between January 1 and September 24 this year.

Officers also secured a total of 1,733 shop theft charges in that time.

Essex Police said this is down to a "close working partnership" between Essex Police teams, retailers and business, which means that they can gather enough evidence to put "strong cases" before the courts.

Co-op is one of the businesses that works in partnership with the Essex Police Business Crime Team "in all aspects of crime prevention and prosecutions", according to Lee Hammond, head of profit improvement and internal security for the East of England Co-op.

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Mr Hammond, who is also a member of the Essex Business Crime Strategic Board, said: "Through working together to target prolific offenders, providing impact statements and suppling CCTV footage, we’re able to provide the best evidence possible, which often results in successful prosecutions."

One of the campaigns run by Essex Police's Business Crime Team is Operation Pedlar, where retailers pledge not to re-sell stolen goods and to report information to the police if they are offered stolen goods for sale.

Sergeant Denning explaining the Operation Pedlar campaign to shop staff (Image: Essex Police)

According to Sergeant Christian Denning, from the Business Crime Team, a rise in reported cases of shoplifting nationwide - but Essex remains below the national average for shoplifting incidents per 1,000 residents.

Sergeant Denning said that the force is "working hard" to combat and reduce shoplifting.

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He added: "Central to this is retailers reporting shop theft, assaults on staff and associated anti-social behaviour to us, either through our website at www.essex.police.uk/ro or by ringing 101.

"If it’s a crime in progress, ring 999.

"The information you provide helps us to identify, arrest and build cases against shoplifters – whatever the total cost of the goods they steal."