Geraldton Police issue more than 70 banning notices and charge three with trespass in shoplifting blitz

Geraldton Police have banned more than 70 shoplifters from stores across the city since launching a program in March to curb the recurring issue. In a bid to tackle shoplifting and keep repeat offenders out of stores, police introduced a ban notice program in March allowing retailers to remove consent for people to enter stores and give police the ability to prosecute offenders for trespassing. So far, police have served 71 ban notices to offenders across Geraldton, with another 17 waiting to be served. Senior Constable Robert Grace said all of the ban notices were issued based on a retail stealing charge, but several incidents included other offences. “We expect to serve further banning notices on an ongoing basis,” he said. The Liquor Enforcement Unit has also served a further 20 barring notices for stealing offences from licensed premises, including bottle shops. Under the Liquor Control Act, the banned person cannot enter any licensed premises across the State for a period of up to 12 months. Police have arrested and charged three people for trespassing after breaching a banning notice. Sen. Const Grace said the small number of trespassing charges showed the banning notice program was working to keep thieves out of stores. “We are committed to assisting our local retailers with the service of banning notices and hopefully offenders will get the message that retail theft will not be tolerated by the community,” he said. Geraldton Police officer-in-charge Sen. Sgt Chris Martin said police and retailers had worked tirelessly to stop shoplifting and the community were fed up. “Shoplifting is really frustrating for a lot of people and I’m talking about trolley loads of stuff going out the door,” he said. “We’re not going to be backing down on this. It’s very, very clear that it’s not acceptable. “People can expect to get a minimum $500 fine for the stealing, but also be summonsed to court for trespassing.”