This is the moment a police officer chased down a repeat shoplifter who drove away in an Audi after stealing from Marks and Spencer.

A plainclothes officer was alerted to the thief at M&S in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on May 15 after she stole an item from the fruit and vegetable section.

Andrea Berquez, 41, left the store with the stolen goods and refused to stop for the officer who attempted to apprehend her as she got into her Audi TT. 

While waiting at traffic lights, the officer made a second attempt to stop the car but she made off again.

Her car was then spotted by patrolling officers, who chased her down and pulled her from the vehicle.

CCTV shows an officer telling her to 'get out of the car' multiple times before the woman was arrested.

She was then charged with five counts of theft between April 25 and 15 May.

She pleaded guilty and was sentenced at Maidstone Magistrates' Court on September 14 to a two-year conditional discharge order. 

In April this year, it emerged shoplifting offences reported to police in England and Wales have more than doubled in five years – but very few had resulted in a charge.

Total thefts rose by 133 per cent from 228,128 in 2020-21 to 530,457 in 2024-25, according to House of Commons Library data analysed by the Liberal Democrats.

But just 19.8 per cent of offences in 2024-25 resulted in a charge being made – with the worst rate coming from the Metropolitan Police, which was only 6.5 per cent.

British Transport Police had a charge rate of 10.8 per cent, then Gloucestershire at 11.9 per cent, Avon and Somerset at 12.2 per cent and Dyfed-Powys at 14.3 per cent.

It comes as London retailers face an escalating shoplifting crisis with the Met having reported 93,626 cases in 2024-25, up 202 per cent from 31,008 in 2020-21.

Durham Constabulary had the best record, bringing charges in 32.7 per cent of cases in 2024-25, followed by Humberside at 31.9 per cent and Norfolk at 30.6 per cent.

Chief Inspector Rav Pathania, the Metropolitan Police's lead for tackling retail crime, previously told the Daily Mail: 'Retail crime is a top priority for the Met. Last year, we solved nearly double the number of shoplifting cases and made almost 50 per cent more arrests.

'These results reflect our relentless approach, the effective use of technology such as facial recognition, and close collaboration with retailers – who are vital partners in helping us identify and pursue the repeat offenders causing fear and harm to retail workers and communities.'

He went on to insist shoplifters are escaping justice because storekeepers are refusing to hand over CCTV.

Mr Pathania claimed that if retail managers released more footage of offences then officers would be able to clamp down on crime – saying that the force never received CCTV for 80 per cent of crimes last year.

He added that in cases where shopkeepers did pass on footage, police could identify 80 per cent of suspects by running the images through databases of known offenders.

The Met claims to be making significant progress in tackling shoplifting, with reported offences in London falling by 3 per cent between April 2025 and March 2026, compared with the same period the previous year.

Its 'positive outcome rate' – including charges, cautions, penalty notices – has risen to 14 per cent in 2024-25, up from 8 per cent in the previous financial year. 

Earlier this year, M&S's retail director, Thinus Keeve, claimed its customer-facing staff were being subjected to violence and abuse every day, and called for the Government and London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to crack down on crime.

Mr Keeve spoke out after unrest involving one of the retail giant's stores in Clapham, south London, which saw hundreds of youths swarm high street shops as part of an online trend.

Meanwhile Costa Coffee has hired security guards at around ten stores facing repeated incidents of shoplifting in a bid to prevent its food and drinks being stolen. 

Lucy Whing, crime policy lead at the British Retail Consortium, told the Daily Mail: 'The high level of shop theft is a major issue, and retailers are having to take decisive action to tackle it. Ultimately, we are all victims of retail crime, which pushes up the price of goods for honest shoppers. 

'Retailers welcome the imminent passage of the Crime and Policing Bill, which will strengthen action against offenders, including making assaulting a retail worker a standalone offence, and removing the £200 threshold for investigating theft. 

'It is vital the police respond to every reported incident to visibly demonstrate to offenders that all types of retail crime will not be tolerated.'

A survey of 1,000 customer-facing workers in the UK by the Institute of Customer Service found around 43 per cent of frontline staff had experienced hostility or abuse from customers in the past six months, up from 36 per cent the previous year.

The Crime and Policing Bill has cleared both the Commons and Lords, but is going through a 'tidying up process' between the two Houses of Parliament, which must agree on a final draft for the statute books. It returned to the Lords for further consideration today.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures available show shoplifting offences increased in England and Wales in the year to September, but remained slightly below record levels seen in the 12 months to March 2025.

There were 519,381 shoplifting offences in the year to September 2025, up 5 per cent from 492,660 the previous year. A total of 530,439 offences were recorded in the year to March 2025.

The Government has pointed to how the rise in levels of shop theft is slowing, with the 5 per cent increase comparing to a 29 per cent rise in the year before Labour came to power.

The data for the 2020/21 year in the Lib Dems' research was also affected by the coronavirus pandemic when many shops were closed due to lockdown restrictions.