SHOP staff are being forced to improve security after a rise in the theft of meat.

Items are being moved to more secure locations within shops as rising numbers of such offences take place across the area.

Customers at Tesco Express in Lymington Road, Highcliffe were told meat had been moved away from the door due to a high number of thefts.

A staff member said around £400 worth had been stolen.

And there have been increasing numbers of people in court for such offences.

In recent days a 33-year-old woman appeared before magistrates charged with stealing £400 worth of meat from Waitrose in Wimborne.

A 44-year-old woman was charged with stealing meat worth £160 from Tesco in Bournemouth, a 33-year-old man appeared in relation to a £63 meat theft from Lidl and a 45-year-old homeless man was charged with stealing meat from Lidl in Bournemouth and Sainsbury's in Boscombe.

Three more offences at Co-op in Poole, Asda in Bournemouth and Co-op in Bournemouth also appeared in the court lists.

Many shoplifting offences are attributed to drug use and meat and alcohol are top of the shopping list.

Addicts say they are the easiest items to steal and to sell on at around half price to people in pubs and markets.

A spokesman for Tesco confirmed that meat has been relocated in some stores due to recent thefts and added: "Issues of theft are taken extremely seriously by Tesco. We work closely with the police to ensure that any instance of theft is dealt with."

Some retailers are now putting security tags on the most expensive cuts of meat.

And an independent shopkeeper in Charminster told the Daily Echo he had been forced to erect a barrier in front of alcohol due to a high number of thefts.