I can't justify my teenage shoplifting, says Stacey Dooley

Are we turning into a nation of shoplifters? That's the question Stacey Dooley asks in her latest documentary.



The presenter reveals she herself shoplifted as a teenager, as part of the BBC programme on the rise in retail theft in the UK.



Dooley explains she would steal eyeliner and mascara at around 13 or 14 years old.

"It would have been disingenuous not to mention it" in the documentary, she says.

"There's not a world where I could sit here and try and justify it, you know, there was no reason, there was no need for me to be out there behaving like that."

She adds that she "wasn't thinking about the girls on the shop floor" and "wasn't thinking about anybody else other than myself".

The documentary-maker spent eight months looking into the rise in shoplifting in the UK - and says "shoplifting has never been more prolific than it is now".

And this comes as retail theft and violence and abuse towards shop workers is rising, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Based on the latest weighted BRC-Opinium survey with 2,000 participants, the BRC estimates almost a quarter (24%) of the UK population witnessed shoplifting in the 12 months to February 2025.

In Meet the Shoplifters, Dooley asks shoplifters about their motivations. Some see it as an act of defiance against big corporations, while others say they find it "really degrading" but do it to get things like nappies and milk for their children.

One shoplifter Dooley spoke to, for example, was a mother stealing milk and bread to feed her child. "She was riddled with guilt," Dooley says of the mother. "It was out of sheer desperation."

Tom Holder from the BRC says shoplifting in the UK is becoming worse and worse, adding: "We're now just reaching new heights. People think that they can get away with it, without consequence."

The recent BRC survey also estimates 23% of customers witnessed the physical or verbal abuse of shop staff in the year to February 2025. This can include racial or sexual abuse, physical assault or threats with weapons.

Dooley spoke to retail worker Dips, who works in a cosmetics store in Manchester, and says "as each year has gone on, it's got worse for us".

"It's not a victimless crime. Somebody always pays the price for it down the line. And for us, it's the staff in here," she adds.

Dooley also explains how shoplifting is being documented on social media. "We've seen shop assistants be, you know, verbally abused, physically abused," she says.

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC, adds that while an incident can be "over in a matter of seconds", it can have "life-long consequences" on those who experience it, making them think twice about visiting their local high streets.

When speaking to shoplifters, Dooley says some of them "don't even see it as a crime, necessarily".

And she adds that on social media, some people use hashtags to offer other shoplifters advice.

But shoplifting cost UK retailers £2bn in one year, according to a recent estimate.

And Holder says shoplifting puts pressure on retail prices, adding: "That money has to come from somewhere, so it ends up being spread across everything that we buy."