Malvern perfume shop boss attacked confronting shoplifters

A perfume shop manager said she had been attacked twice this year confronting shoplifters.

Domonique Woodward, who runs Fragrance House in Malvern, described how a man told her she could not take his bag and get stolen items out.

Ms Woodward, who stated the number of incidents had gone up, said shops send alerts to each other.

Shoplifting in the West Mercia policing area has increased by almost 60% in the past year.

Speaking about Friday's incident, the manager said: "They opened a bag and started putting items in there, so I took the bag off of them [and] got the items out.

"They told me 'I can't do that, I'm not allowed to do that'.

"I said 'at the end of the day, yes I am, you've got my property in there, I'm going to take it back'."

Ms Woodward added she started marching him to the exit and he was "trying every way possible to get to any of the shelves to grab an item".

She stated: "By the time that they kind of realised that I wasn't having it, that's when they started getting violent."

Asked if shoplifting had been a real problem at the business, Ms Woodward said it was not and "years before we were lucky if we got even one a year".

But 2023 had seen a rise and "suddenly [we've] had probably about four attempts this year".

She said fellow shop owners were working together to combat the rise.

"All of us have got CCTV now, so if anything does happen, we kind of collaborate with our CCTV, so we can track where these people come from and pass that evidence to the police," she said.

Deputy police and crime commissioner for West Mercia Marc Bayliss said PCC John Campion had increased the number of police officers by about 600 since he took office in 2016.

He added: "[Mr Campion] very much identified neighbourhood crime as one of his priorities... and we are committed to making sure that the police have the resources to take these issues very seriously.

"We certainly are seeing an increase in the sort of organised crime gangs undertaking shoplifting as a way of funding their lifestyles."

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