GWENT POLICE promise to start cracking down on shoplifting over the festive season, by using facial recognition technology and CCTV footage.

The force believe that busy shopping areas, such as retail parks and city/town centres, including Newport and Cwmbran, will be much safer places now they have started to reduce the levels of theft.

A spokesperson for Gwent Police said: "We recognise that shoplifting and retail crime can have a major impact on our communities, both on individuals and businesses.

"Theft, and particularly shoplifting, is not a victimless crime and we’ll be working with businesses throughout this festive period to create safe shopping environments, to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

"It’s crucial that every shoplifting incident is reported to us, so that we can take action.

"Our neighbourhood policing teams will be carrying out increased high-visibility patrols, particularly in town centres and retail parks which typically experience the biggest increase in retail crime during the festive season.

"We’ll continue to provide helpful crime prevention advice to businesses and target prolific and habitual offenders whose behaviour causes misery and impacts on our retailers and our communities."

Superintendent Jason White said: “We will take robust action against people who commit shoplifting offences and retail crime in our communities.

"We’ll be working closely with our partners and businesses to deter, prevent and investigate shoplifting offences.

“Collaboration is the key to addressing shoplifting and, our latest figures this financial year show, we're taking more action against more shoplifting offenders.

“We'll be deploying covert tactics to target offenders and using CCTV images from businesses and retrospective facial recognition technology to further aid our efforts to identify offenders who commit retail crime.

“I would encourage all those employed in the retail sector to continue to report criminal activity.

“I want to reassure businesses and shoppers that we are listening to your concerns.

“While the figures for shoplifting in our force area have increased this year, similar to the trend nationally, we're committed to making sure that Gwent continues to be among the safest place to live and work in Wales.”

If you see any unusual activity, Gwent Police have asked you to report it to them by calling 101, messaging them on social media, or dialling 999.