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Section 22A: Low-value shoplifting to be a summary offence

Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 · 1980 c. 43View on legislation.gov.uk

Part I: Criminal Jurisdiction and Procedure

Low-value shoplifting is triable only summarily.

But where a person accused of low-value shoplifting is aged 18 or over, and appears or is brought before the court before the summary trial of the offence begins, the court must give the person the opportunity of electing to be tried by the Crown Court for the offence and, if the person elects to be so tried—

subsection (1) does not apply, and
the court must proceed in relation to the offence in accordance with section 51(1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

"Low-value shoplifting" means an offence under section 1 of the Theft Act 1968 in circumstances where—

the value of the stolen goods does not exceed £200,
the goods were being offered for sale in a shop or any other premises, stall, vehicle or place from which there is carried on a trade or business, and
at the time of the offence, the person accused of low-value shoplifting was, or was purporting to be, a customer or potential customer of the person offering the goods for sale.

For the purposes of subsection (3)(a)—

the value of the stolen goods is the price at which they were being offered for sale at the time of the offence, and
where the accused is charged on the same occasion with two or more offences of low-value shoplifting, the reference to the value involved has effect as if it were a reference to the aggregate of the values involved.

A person guilty of low-value shoplifting is liable on summary conviction to—

imprisonment for a period not exceeding 51 weeks (or 6 months, if the offence was committed before the commencement of section 281(4) and (5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003),
a fine, or
both.

A person convicted of low-value shoplifting by a magistrates' court may not appeal to the Crown Court against the conviction on the ground that the convicting court was mistaken as to whether the offence was one of low-value shoplifting.

For the purposes of this section, any reference to low-value shoplifting includes aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of low-value shoplifting.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.