CALLING the police is the last resort to tackle shoplifting if it is nipped in the bud properly, a Colchester shopkeeper has said.

Police officers are continuing to tackle shoplifting across the county with more than 100 charges of shop theft secured by Essex Police in recent weeks.

Some shopkeepers have previously criticised the force for only investigating cases where goods worth more than £200 are stolen – a claim denied by Essex Police.

But a Colchester shopkeeper has told the Gazette his business is rarely targeted by thieves because of the hard work his team has done to stamp out the issue.

Bill Nettelfield, who lives in Halstead and owns Bill and Berts in Colchester city centre, ensures every customer is greeted with a friendly “hello” and always has his shop well-staffed to make sure everyone who comes through the door is spoken to.

He said: “I would 100 per cent believe that the reason shoplifting in Bill and Berts is miniscule - if at all - is due to the extra staffing levels we have on the shop floor and engagement with everyone who comes through the door.”

Mr Nettelfield also refutes other shopkeepers’ claims that the police aren’t doing enough to help retailers, saying he would be comfortable approaching Essex Police if he needed to.

“We have Colchester BID who have some very good wardens in the town trying to help everyone,” he said.

“Police come in the shop regularly and praise us for our approach and I believe if I needed them quickly they would be in there.”

Essex Police said it has made 114 arrests for shop theft across the county in the past four weeks, taking the total for the year so far to almost 600.

Other business owners have claimed the police aren’t doing enough to clamp down on the issue.

Earlier this month, the BBC reported how Mayank Parikh, a shopkeeper in Essex for 11 years, had seen his shop targeted four times in ten days.

“The day before yesterday three boys came in, they just took a drink and ran away,” he told the BBC.

Martin Leatherdale, manager of the city's Lion Walk shopping centre, previously told the Gazette, Essex Police "deals with threats extremely proactively".