That's according to the preliminary findings of the latest annual Retail Crime Survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Just 5% of respondents to the survey believe that the police treat retail crime as anything other than a low or very low priority.

BRC director-general Kevin Hawkins said:

"Attempting to hand shoplifters over to the police has become time wasting and futile. Too often they are not interested and even when there is a successful prosecution, the penalties are derisory."

The full survey is due to be published on 11 October.