A SHERIFF has slammed an exclusion zone in the city centre set up by police to ban serial thieves from the area, saying it will simply move the problem to Bruntsfield.
Andrew Lothian said he was "not happy" with the scheme as he dealt with a trio of shoplifting cases at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday.
Sheriff Lothian said that shopkeepers outside the zone may suffer if thieves hit with the order are forced to
target premises outside the city centre.
But police chiefs said the zone had been carefully crafted after an analysis of shoplifting hotspots in the Capital and believed it would impact on the number of offences being committed.
Each person accused of shoplifting is now shown a map of the area and has to sign-up to the exclusion zone as part of their bail conditions.
Although bail orders have previously included areas where accused thieves cannot enter, it is the first time in Scotland that a zone has been formalised for use across different cases.
The zones includes busy shopping spots Princes Street, George Street, Lothian Road and Multrees Walk in a bid to keep out prolific offenders. But Sheriff Lothian said: "Who came up with this zone? Why should we move shoplifters to other parts of the town?
"I'm not happy about this. If people have teams of shoplifters coming up from Glasgow by train then I'd understand.
"But I'm not sure what the shopkeepers outside the zone in areas like Bruntsfield would think about this."
Bruntsfield jewellery shop owner Sandie Wilson Greene said the move had left her worried that smaller shops will suffer.
She said: "It seems to me they are just protecting the big businesses like M&S, where a stolen item has little effect on income.
"We've got a nice area here and the only problems are school kids on lunch breaks at the newsagent. We've had one shoplifter in the 18 years we've been here, but this zone means we'll probably get more now."
Police said they picked specific areas having consulted with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and vowed to "monitor closely" any knock-on effects.
A police spokesman said: "The effect of this is to prevent an individual entering an agreed area defined in the attached map.
"This map has been compiled following research of all crimes of shoplifting within the city centre area, and is designed to exclude offenders who come before the court from the 'hot spot' areas, lessening their opportunity to commit this or other offences whilst legal proceedings are ongoing.
"The Edinburgh City Centre Bail Exclusion Zone is a new project and, as such, will be closely monitored to assess its impact on local crime."
The full article contains 461 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
