New figures show that brazen thieves targeted shopping centres after Havering recorded more than 1,000 shoplifting cases last year.

The top two locations in the borough were Romford town centre’s shopping malls - the Liberty and the Brewery.

The third highest for shoplifting was Gallows Corner Tesco Extra.

Havering ranked seventeenth highest out of the 32 London boroughs - based on the number of incidents as a percentage of the population for the area.

The borough’s police force recorded 1185 shoplifting incidents in 2016 - a nine per cent rise from the previous year.

The total number of shoplifting incidents in England and Wales during 2016 topped 360,000 - a 7.6 per cent increase from 2015.

In London, the Metropolitan Police handled a total of 47,099 shoplifting reports during 2016, which is more than a 10 per cent increase on the 2015 figure of 42,658.

Unsurprisingly, Westminster topped the chart in London for shoplifting with thousands of big spenders heading to up-market shops in Oxford Street, Regent Street and New Bond Street.

The figures were collated by the website Love My Vouchers.

Director Linda Firth said: “Shoplifting doesn’t just affect the retailers, it also affects consumers as the losses are typically recouped through higher retail prices.

“With such a high portion of the population already struggling to make ends meet, the affect of increasing retail prices to account for the costs of shoplifting could have a significant impact on budgets.”