Essex café is targeted by gangs of shoplifting teens

Caffe Royale London, an organic coffee shop, opened on the first floor of the Eastgate Shopping Centre, in Basildon, in May. 

However, co-director Parisa Javani has claimed the business has been targeted by a group of teenagers every week since who “take delight in disrupting her business and shoplift as though it is a game”. 

CCTV footage shows some of the teenagers mid-theft (Image: Parisa Javani)
She is calling on Essex Police and the Eastgate Shopping Centre to do more to protect traders such as herself.

“I don’t feel safe or secure. At the beginning and end of each day I work alone, and it can be really scary,” she said. 

“Although they are young, they come in big groups and you don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Parisa believes the shoplifters are all teenagers and said she has resorted to chasing the thieves to retrieve her stolen goods.

The café is located on the first-floor of the Eastgate Shopping Centre (Image: George Pizani) She added: “They will come and talk to me when they do it. They will ask if I would like to give them the items for free or if they should steal it.

“These kids obviously don’t care about what they’re taking because they just throw the drinks around once they’re outside.”

Food and drinks are regularly stolen, with the cost adding up over time (Image: George Pizani)

Since moving into her first-floor Eastgate unit in May, Parisa says she has been targeted by groups on a weekly basis.

She claims she has raised the issue with Essex Police and the Eastgate Shopping Centre’s management but has received little response.

“Every time it happens, I tell the police, but they do nothing,” said Parisa. 

Parisa thinks a lot more could be done to help traders like hersel (Image: George Pizani)
“I also think the security here should be doing something, even if it’s just providing us with some clear CCTV photos of the shoplifters”.

The cafe owner would like to see security identifying shoplifters and preventing them from entering the shopping centre.

A spokesman for the Eastgate said: “We arranged a Basildon Town Centre meeting in Eastgate so that we could discuss crime in the town and find ways of working together. Chief Inspector Dan Mchugh wanted to meet retailers to talk about the issues they have with anti-social behaviour and crime and discuss with them plans about things happening going forward.”