A major retailer has brought in new measures to combat shoplifting in its stores. Home Bargains has begun to introduce security cameras enabled with Artificial Intelligence, or AI, which are able to spot items that go through checkouts without being scanned.

Two in-store trials have recently been launched by the discount firm, which turn CCTV cameras “into specialised and capable in-store AI assistants”, according to the firm supplying the technology. It comes as Home Office figures released in February revealed that over 250,000 shoplifting cases went unsolved the previous year. In the year ending September 2024, 269,237 shoplifting cases were closed without a suspect being identified in England and Wales, a 19% increase from the previous year.

In contrast, just 18% of all cases resulted in a charge or summons. Storewide Active Intelligence, or SAI, has partnered with Home Bargains in its Speke store in Liverpool, while the other trial is also being run with Ireland-based Everseen.

Through these trials, Home Bargains is aiming to fight back against so-called “swipers”, customers who steal items by bringing them through self-checkouts but failing to scan them.

Their new AI solution can detect “misscans”, where items pass the checkout but are not included in shoppers’ total bills.

A recent study from compliance auditor Serve Legal found that 37% of shoppers admitted to stealing items at self-checkouts, without almost a third conceding they incorrectly weighed loose items and 38% scanning the wrong loose items.

One of the Home Bargains trials is also aimed at rooting out so-called “skip-scanning” at manned checkouts, where an assistant allows a friend’s items to go through without charging them.

It is understood no skip-scanning has been found in the trial.

These trials are part of a host of loss-prevention technology being implemented by Home Bargains, which offered customers a £500 bonus in 2023 if they alerted staff to shoplifters.

The company has also enlisted the help of tech companies Facewatch and Auror to put a stop to theft.

Facewatch uses facial recognition based on a national database so staff are aware when a known offender is in a store, though it only retains images of those already linked to a crime.

Auror is a New Zealand-based company which can collect evidence of crimes committed across multiple retailers.

It presents information to police when a single offender’s theft exceeds the £200 threshold required for an investigation and is also in use at Marks and Spencer.

This threshold might be up for the chop, though, with the government’s new Crime and Policing Bill, introduced to parliament in February, mandating the repeal of the “low-value shoplifting” value.

Paul Rowland, operations director at Home Bargains, told The Grocer publication the brand found the new technology more useful than security guards.

He explained the focus was on crime prevention, which would also protect staff, and that the presence of security guards could sometimes escalate rather than calm situations.