The local policing team in Exeter took part in a national week of action in a bid to tackle business crime earlier this month.
Safer Business Action Week is co-ordinated by the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC). The week ran from Monday 10 November 2025 to Friday 14 November and aimed to tackle retail crime, anti-social behaviour and other offences affecting businesses in communities, as well as to strengthen relationships between local policing teams and local businesses.
Throughout the national week of action, officers in Exeter carried out proactive patrols, engaged with local businesses and targeted shop theft suspects in the city centre. This activity resulted in:
- 1 x arrest of ‘wanted’ shop theft suspect
- 1 x stop search which helped to build intelligence
- 1 x suspect reported for four shop theft offences
- 1 x person arrested and charged shop theft and breach of Community Behaviour Order
- 1 x person arrested and charged for shop theft
- 1 x person arrested and charged for shop theft across the force area. This person pled guilty and is due to attend court on 3 February.
Sergeant Matt Beards heads up the Exeter policing team. He said “Shop theft is one of our nine priorities in Exeter, and we’ve been working closely with the Exeter Against Business Crime group and our partner agencies to encourage reporting and to tackle prolific shop thieves.
“Shop theft is not a victimless crime, and we recognise the impact theft has on local businesses and the people working in the affected shops.
“If you are a business owner, please continue to report any incidents of shop theft to us. This information helps us to build an accurate picture of retail crime and means we can deploy resources efficiently and directly target offenders. Tackling this issue remains a priority for us, and for the Force as a whole.”
For further help and advice on business safety please visit: Business crime prevention | Devon & Cornwall Police (devon-cornwall.police.uk) Practical help and support to victims of crime is available from the Devon and Cornwall Victim Care Unit and Victim Support. For more information visit: https://victimcare-dc.org/.
Businesses can also sign up to Community Messaging, a two-way messaging system to receive emails relevant to your local area by visiting the Community Messaging page.
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