Lewisham had London’s fastest rise in recorded shoplifting, up 57.8% in a year

Lewisham recorded the fastest rise in shoplifting of any London borough between September 2025 and August 2026. The Metropolitan Police recorded 3,228 shoplifting offences there, up 57.8% from 2,046 in the previous twelve months.

Islington had the second biggest rise, up 33.9% from 3,461 to 4,634. Tower Hamlets was third, up 30.7% from 2,981 to 3,895. Hackney and Westminster both rose by 24.9%. In Hackney that meant 3,166 offences, up from 2,535. In Westminster it meant 9,305, up from 7,449, which was the highest count of any borough in the latest twelve months.

Where shoplifting fell in London

Merton had the biggest fall. It recorded 1,301 shoplifting offences between September 2025 and August 2026, down 33.7% from 1,961. Enfield was next, down 26.8% from 3,033 to 2,221, followed by Barking and Dagenham, down 25.9% from 1,321 to 979. That gave Barking and Dagenham the lowest count in London for the period.

Newham and Brent also saw clear falls. Newham went from 5,149 to 4,277, down 16.9%, and Brent from 3,413 to 2,715, down 20.5%. A few boroughs barely moved. Camden was down 0.2%, Kingston upon Thames was down 0.9% and Croydon was up 2.4%.

London shoplifting figures across all boroughs

Across the 32 boroughs the Met covers, recorded shoplifting rose from 93,735 offences to 95,013, an increase of 1.4%. The count fell in 18 of the 32 boroughs and rose in 14. More boroughs went down than up, but the rises were heavier in places such as Westminster, Islington and Lewisham, so the London total still went up.

How2London worked these figures out from MPS Recorded Crime: Geographic Breakdown, a dataset published by the Metropolitan Police Service on the London Datastore. We added up every offence recorded under shoplifting in each borough for the latest twelve months and the twelve months before, then compared the two.

What the shoplifting data does not show

These are offences the police recorded, not every theft that took place. If shops start reporting more thefts, or the police change how they record them, the count moves even when the amount of shoplifting does not. A sharp rise in one borough can come from either.

The figures are also raw counts. They are not adjusted for how many people live in a borough, work there or pass through it, so a busy central borough such as Westminster will record more shoplifting than a quieter outer one. The City of London has its own police force and does not appear in this data.

The full borough table is printed below, from Lewisham at the top to Merton at the bottom.