"There are many reasons why people who have so much to lose risk so much for so little," he says. "These are people who are reasonably well off and are basically honest. This is not typically about risk-taking - it's not done just for the thrill of it." He confirms that the shoplifting episodes are a response to what those people perceive as an experienced or anticipated "unfair, personally meaningful loss".
This might include anything from losing a TV show, to problems with an intimate relationship or a child with an illness, he says. "[The shoplifting] can be described as a hole that they want to fill – in the same way that people eat too much, drink too much or work too much." And in many cases, when caught, their behaviour doesn't make sense to them.
"In most cases, timing is important," Cupchik says. "I say to people, 'Tell me what happened in your life either earlier that day or the day before, and it will often be something profound."
He relates the story of a top lawyer who stole a tube of toothpaste from a chemist in the same building as his law firm. ‘I don't know why I did it,’ he told me, but that day his child was in hospital undergoing chemotherapy. These are intelligent people who virtually never understand why they did what they did." And, he says, there is usually a symbolic meaningfulness to the item being stolen. He describes one lady who stole items that she subsequently donated to a charity shop. One of those items was a wrench. He says the woman didn’t understand why she took the wrench but when quizzed about what was going on in her life at the time, she said that her husband, a mechanic, had cancer.
Recent research carried out by Cupchik in North America indicates that more doctors, nurses and police officers have been involved in shoplifting than any other profession. We can excuse alcoholics but a shoplifter may have the same issues - it is very complicated. Barbara Staib, National Association For Shoplifting Prevention says that "These are professions that deal with loss – such as loss of life – on a daily basis. They don't process how to handle the experience of loss."
Like many "non-professional" shoplifters, Worrall Thompson has expressed shame over his actions, describing the day he got caught as "the least proud day of my life".
"People can be very ashamed," says Staib. "One woman told us that she wished she was an alcoholic instead of a shoplifter." The woman explained that if she had told friends that she was an alcoholic and seeking treatment they would commend her for dealing with her problem. But if she told friends that she was a shoplifter and dealing with it, it would be a very different response.
"She said they would be afraid of her," says Staib. "People see shoplifting as more of a black-and-white issue – thou shalt not steal. In the US, someone who shoplifts is a "dirtbag" or a "loser". We can excuse alcoholics but a shoplifter may have the same issues – it is very complicated. It is an addiction and they need treatment.
However, she stresses that none of this makes their behaviour acceptable. "There are some very poor, distraught people who don't shoplift," she says.
The British TV chef has said that while there have been many things going on in his life, including stress and the funerals of a couple of friends, he was not trying to make excuses for his actions. Cases of stealing by what psychologists describe as "non-professional shoplifters" – those who don't steal for profit or resale, or to feed a drug or alcohol addiction – with these cases there appears to be much more going on psychologically.
Tom Campbell was forced to resign as an adviser to Boris Johnson when he openly admitted to shoplifting in an interview last year. “If I ever go into a chain place for lunch, I always have to steal something... so they don’t make a profit out of me. I always steal the pudding or the soup or something,” he gaily confessed. “When you’re, like, 40, they don’t grab you or anything. They just say 'Sir, I think you’ve made a mistake...’ Someone told me it’s so expensive to prosecute a shoplifter that all they ever do is say 'Excuse me, sir.’ And I say, 'Oh, God, I’m sorry. How did that get in my bag?’ That’s how I justify going into the chain [stores]. That’s the rule. If you go into a chain, you have to steal.”
But is shoplifting really a middle-class crime, or is it just that it’s often labelled alternatively. Looting, for example. Or stealing. Worrall Thompson got a caution for his “behaviour” (attempting to steal more than £70-worth of goods on five different occasions); during the London riots, a 23-year-old college student from south London received six months in prison for the “opportunistic” theft of a £3.50 case of bottled Lidl water.
The middle-class shoplifter, like Boris’s former adviser, thinks that by nicking the odd tuna sarnie from a multinational, they are sticking one up to the man, that they are setting their own “buy one get one free” rules. Their political statement is organic fruit and veg, posh cheese, or the odd bottle of champagne snuck into their bag at the self-service till. For that, a slap on the wrist. For the kid who nicked a pair of trainers during the riots, a different fate – and at least the kid had the vague motivation of living on a south London council estate rather than a four-bedroomed house in the Home Counties.
While researching her new book, The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, the American academic Rachel Shteir found many middle class people “who admitted to me that they [shoplifted], then admitted to me that they would continue to do it. People who shoplift tend to do so not because they need to, but because they feel wronged in some way, be it psychologically or culturally, by the Government. And in those terms, as we all know, the middle-classes are prone to feeling the most wronged.”
Worrall Thompson spent £180 on three crates of champagne at the same time that he shoplifted £4 of goods. Staff at Tesco, hid cameras to film his behaviour. “They were discreet,” said the chef, of the moment he was stopped last Friday. “They didn’t march me through the store or anything.”
The 60-year-old has spoken of the shame of letting his family and friends down. The big question, he says, is "why". Experts agree that in these cases, shoplifting is rarely about genuinely needing the item that is stolen. It is often about seizing the opportunity to momentarily exercise control when the perception is one of powerlessness.
Research by retail consultants Global Retail Theft Barometer and Checkpoint Systems has suggested a new wave of middle-class shoplifter is targeting high-end delicacies from supermarkets in order to maintain a lifestyle they could no longer afford. These are people who appear to be reputable and often justify their actions by arguing that they have become victims to the economic recession.
But in most cases of stealing by what psychologists describe as "non-professional shoplifters" – those who don't steal for profit or resale, or to feed a drug or alcohol addiction – there is much more going on.
A devastated Worrall Thompson, in an interview with the Daily Express, said that he was unable to comprehend what compelled him to take items such as onions, a sandwich, cheese and wine.
‘On one occasion I paid £180 for three crates of champagne and at the same time nicked £4 of stuff – how ridiculous and how stupid. I’ve been racking my brains to think why on earth did I do it and what was going through my mind at the time,’ he said.
Experts say this is a typical response from a "non-professional shoplifter". Shoplifting is generally a reaction to some kind of loss and a need to fill a void - real or perceived, argues Barbara Staib of the National Association For Shoplifting Prevention in the US.
"Shoplifters are generally honest citizens," she says, adding that research has revealed a "direct correlation between depression and shoplifting". She explains that while other people might turn to alcohol, or binge eating, others turn to shoplifting. "Some people are trying to find solace in shoplifting," she says. "It gives them the 'rush', a 'high' - it can be a relief, if only a temporary one, as they suffer remorse afterward, when they get caught.
"These are people who go into a store and the opportunity arises. For some reason they rationalise, they convince themselves that it's OK – for that moment. This is maladaptive behaviour – a way of coping with things that are going on in those people's lives."
Perhaps the phenomenon of the middle class shoplifter is best summed up by ‘Lucie’ - not her real name – who wrote a blog piece entitled ‘I earn good money, but I still shoplift’. In it she claims:
‘What matters is getting away with it, and having something that I got by one-upping and outsmarting the system. I know that my lifting is set on the easiest possible mode it can be (professional young adult white woman in nice clothes), but it still feels like victory. And even though I can afford a lot, relatively speaking, on what I currently earn, I want more. My wardrobe is that of someone with twice my salary, and it helps me out at work, whether I like to admit it or not. The problem though is that, even if I can admit to myself it’s an addiction and a compulsion and something I need to stop, like, yesterday, I can’t admit it to others. The way people judge lifting is way worse than if someone were addicted to a substance or booze or whatever. It comes with moral implications that I can’t bear. I would lose my job, I would lose friends, I might even lose family. I can’t come clean about it because the risks are too high, and even sending this story via email (from a fake account I made just to send it) fills me with panic. It’s a part of my personality that I simply cannot be open about right now, even if it would mean getting help for my compulsions. But at least I’ve gotten to the point where I can admit it to myself, even if that doesn’t mean stopping. I will always find an excuse to get that release and steal something new, because there will always be another bad day where a balled-up sweater in my purse is the best painkiller.’
That was two years ago. One wonders if ‘Lucie’ managed to give up her guilty secret before she got caught. As the police are fond of saying – ‘to get away with it, you have to be lucky 100 per cent of the time, whereas we only have to be lucky once’.
