A once-thriving British naval city with a historic maritime past is now being plagued by drug addicts, rampaging gangs of youths and people wielding “machetes”.
Business groups in the centre of the Devonshire port say they “can’t tolerate” the growing crime wave that is seeing organised shoplifters “working in groups” to distract staff.
Police have admitted “shoplifting is a growing problem again” and that drug users and gangs of “youngsters causing disorder” plague the city centre.
Worried local Pete Monsgrove, 53, told The Sun: “The way things are going are bad, I saw a guy, someone I recognised, and he was carrying a machete round town.
“I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘It’s for my protection’.”
PlymouthLive reports at a recent meeting with police, Plymouth Against Retail Crime (Parc), Plymouth City Council and Crimestoppers UK, business bosses and managers reported a litany of theft, criminal damage, and abuse and intimidation towards staff and customers.
Steve Hughes, chief executive of Plymouth City Centre Company, said: “We can’t tolerate this any more.”
The national charity Crimestoppers UK told businesses it is making Plymouth’s city centre a focal point for action and regional manager Karen MacDonald urged businesses, and the public, to supply “quality information” anonymously.
Sgt Tom Crabb, from the police’s city centre neighbourhood team, said officers can make use of the city’s CCTV network to identify offenders and said action will be taken.
He said: “There is antisocial behaviour in the city centre, whether groups of youngsters causing disorder, drug users, or from the homeless community, not all of them but certain individuals that will take advantage of goodwill from businesses.
“And shoplifting is a growing problem again. We even have organised groups coming from outside Plymouth, from other parts of the county and even the country.”
Sgt Crabb added larger businesses are targeted for “high-value items” and the gangs “work in groups and try to distract staff.”
