A Romanian crime ring known as the ‘Champagne gang’ are believed to have stolen at least £73,000 of goods from supermarkets across the UK before sending it overseas in a ‘mafia-style’ operation.

The group usually operates in threes, with gang members wearing Bluetooth headsets to communicate with each other during the shoplifting operation.

While blending in with other shoppers, the members are able to warn each other if security guards are watching them as they casually take Champagne bottles off the shelves.

While one gang member sets off the alarm to distract security staff, the others walk out the store with the stolen goods, the BBC reports.

The gang exploited a post-Covid Champagne shortage in mainland Europe 18 months ago to target bottles of fizz in UK shops and then smuggle them to Romania to flood the black market. 

They have since switched their attention to meat and other types of alcohol as they become more sought-after. 

Sarah Bird from the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS), an organisation which works with 100 businesses to tackle retail crime, described it as a ‘mafia-style operation’.

Sarah Bird (pictured) from the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS), described it as a ‘mafia-style operation’

The gang are said to taken ‘full advantage’ of the Champagne shortage in mainland Europe caused by a post-Covid surge in demand and crop failure on the continent last year, which fuelled a stronger black market.

Ms Bird adds that the group has a hierarchy with two people at the top while their employees ‘steal the goods and get a day rate’ of pay.

According to NBCS data, the Champagne gang is responsible for 60 shoplifting incidents across the UK from Gateshead to Bournemouth

The group came to the attention of NBCS in early 2023, with the group targeting other alcohol and meat in that time. 

Ms Bird revealed that the group changes tactics as technology improves, such as using basket and bags after trolley wheel technology which can stop trolleys on the spot was brought in.

Typically the group works in threes but Ms Bird said that during a ‘training day for the new recruits’ seven members were involved a shoplifting incident in Harrogate.

The NBCS say that only two group members have been prosecuted. 

It’s claimed that the stolen goods end up in Romania with intelligence such as ANPR cameras showing that the gang’s vehicles drive through Europe with the stolen items. 

In the past five years, the NBCS says it is tracking 63 organised criminal groups who have stolen at least £2.4m of goods across the UK.  The group added that 37 of these groups originate predominantly from Eastern European countries.

Almost 444,000 shoplifting offences were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months

Earlier this week, the boss of Waitrose said that organised gangs of shoplifters are targeting high-end supermarkets in a new wave of attacks.

James Bailey, 50, revealed there has been a 15 percent rise in the number of assaults on staff members involving weapons in the last year.

Mr Bailey told the Mail On Sunday his employees are facing attacks by ‘brazen and  aggressive’ gangs.

It comes amid a nationwide surge in the prevalence of shoplifting gangs, who can steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods in a matter of weeks.

Mr Bailey told the Mail On Sunday his employees are facing attacks by ‘brazen and aggressive’ gangs. 

It comes amid a nationwide surge in the prevalence of shoplifting gangs, who can steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods in a matter of weeks. 

Phone footage from last month shows young shoplifters battling past staff to steal trainers from a Nike shop in the shadows of Wembley Stadium

This footage, filmed on Sunday, shows a brave Poundland employee grappling with a shoplifter in a store at Westway Cross Shopping Park in Greenford

The government has pledged to crack down on shoplifting and make assaulting shop workers a specific offence.

In London, shoplifters are particularly targeting stores close to Tube stations to give themselves an easy escape route. 

The new offence, which is yet to be put into place, would see perpetrators sentenced to a maximum of six months in prison. 

Britain is currently in the midst of a shoplifting crisis, as police figures recently showed offences have soared by 30 per cent in a year to the highest level in two decades.

Almost 444,000 crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months. This is the highest figure since records began in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Mail on Sunday previously revealed that as few as 12 gangs are behind a quarter of all shoplifting in England and Wales, with some foreign offenders flying in to steal and flee the same day on budget flights. 

And retail experts have repeatedly warned that the rise of shoplifting is being driven by the perception that it was a risk-free crime. 

Just 431 shoplifters in the year to March received fixed penalty notices – the lowest form of punishment for goods under £100 – down 98 per cent from 19,419 a decade ago.

A shoplifter empties the shelves of a Greggs store in south east London into a giant holdall last month 

Footage filmed last month shows a group of men brazenly grabbing goods from a Boots store in north London before loading them into bags in front of shocked shoppers

The use of cautions, which are added to an offender’s criminal record, has also plummeted from 16,281 in 2014 to only 2,077 in the last year – a drop of 87 per cent.

There has been a significant decline in the number of retail thieves pursued through the courts, with 28,955 convictions over the last year versus 71,998 a decade ago. 

Reacting to the figures, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to ‘end the shameful neglect of this problem’ that has ‘allowed it to become an epidemic in our society’. 

Outlining her plans, she told The Times: ‘We will remove the £200 threshold, bring in stronger powers to ban repeat offenders from town centres, make assaults on shop workers a specific criminal offence, and, through our neighbourhood policing guarantee, we will put thousands more police onto our streets to crack down on shop theft, antisocial behaviour and the other crimes that blight our communities and make people feel unsafe.’