Britain has a chocolate problem, among many others

Chocolate kept in anti-theft boxes as shops warn it's being stolen to order

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Chocolate bars are being locked in plastic boxes in some UK shops as retailers and police forces warn thieves are stealing them to order.

Sainsbury's said it had begun using "boxes on products which are regularly targeted", with £2.60 bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk locked up in one London branch.

Chocolate was more recently being "sold on by criminals and is now being targeted more frequently by prolific offenders," according to the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).

Some individual police forces told us they had seen a specific trend of chocolate being targeted. The National Police Chiefs' Council said it was working to tackle this type of crime.

The Heart of England Co-Op group, which runs 38 stores in the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, told the BBC chocolate theft cost it £250,000 last year. It was the group's most stolen product in 2024 and topped only by alcohol in 2025, it said.

Chief executive Steve Browne told the BBC chocolate theft was a "massive issue".

"In a particular shop, one individual could cost us thousands of pounds in a week," he said. "They were coming in... then literally swiping the whole shelf."

He said a shelf of chocolate could be worth £500 and the group had spent £3m on security and other measures to prevent thefts.

Paul Cheema, owner of Malcom's convenience stores in Coventry, said: "Chocolate is the new buzzword for organised crime.

"It was razors, cheese, coffee. Today, these people that are taking stock from convenience stores, from supermarkets, it's taken to order. So chocolate is primetime now."

Cheema said stock was sold on "whether it goes back into another convenience store, a cafe, a bar, restaurant. It's prolific at the moment," adding that shoplifters easily take "£200, maybe £250 of chocolate in the back of a rucksack".

In order to tackle chocolate theft, the ACS says shopkeepers need more help from police and stronger sentences for criminals.

Ha, not likely to see more help from the emasculated police and stronger sentences are likely to be called 'racist.' Oh Britannia.....