Shane Gleeson, who runs 5 Spar Shops in the city, said that the items stolen most often are minerals, sweets and yogurt drinks, as people usually drop these into their pockets.
He said:"It can be difficult to catch people doing that as they are quite skilled at this, however, you have to try avoid accusing someone of doing something wrong, as you may be landed with a defamation case. "The system would describe them as petty criminals but it doesn't feels like that to us" Speaking of those who commit petty theft in his shops, Mr Gleeson said:"They can be very aggressive when we try and stop them. We've had numerous assaults and lots of issues, you have to be very careful of approaching them and who is capable of approaching them.
Mr Gleeson said:"Those people don’t hide their identities, they don’t care, they know there are no consequences if they are charged in courts as there is nowhere to put them.Mr Gleeson said that in his experience, those who perpetrate these crimes are not seeing significant consequences for this level of theft. He said that the thieves are arrested, charged and brought before the courts, but there tends to be a lack of suitable space in prisons.