SHOPLIFTING affects everyone, forcing up the costs of goods as shops pass on the bill for extra security.

As with other crimes which blight modern life, shoplifting often has a link to drugs. This leader column yesterday looked at police efforts to tackle drug-dealing in York.

Shops in York, sick and tired of the stress, damage and loss of profits caused by stealing, last year banded together to form Retailers Against Crime In York (RACY), a shop-exclusion scheme which aims to highlight persistent offenders.

This newspaper has already reported and commented on the early success of this scheme. Now the police have snared the "top ten" serial shoplifters in the city and banned them from more than 200 stores.

Some habitual offenders appear to regard shoplifting more or less as a career which offers a steady income. The growing influence of this new scheme puts across a strong message that shoplifting will not be tolerated in York.

We don't want shoplifters in this city and this enterprising new approach to tackling the problem already looks to be reaping benefits. The most prolific offender, who has been barred from York's shops for life, is now back in prison again, sentenced to three months.

One apparent weakness of this scheme is that RACY and the police declined to hand on pictures of the offenders for the Evening Press to publish. The grounds given were fears of breaching the Data Protection Act and the human rights of the offenders.

Yet publication of these pictures would identify the persistent offenders for those shops not yet signed up to the scheme and help to kick shoplifters out of York for good.

Updated: 10:45 Thursday, February 19, 2004