Criminal Damage
By Graham Parker | Published: 01 January, 2010
The number of retail thefts by customers rose by a third in a single year, and violence and abuse against staff doubled, according to the British Retail Consortium.
The findings, published in the Retail Crime Survey 2009, identified significant reversals in the reduction of crime over the last five years. According to the report, there was a 10 per cent rise in the total cost of retail crime in 2008/2009 with UK shops paying £1.1bn in damages – the equivalent of 72,000 retail jobs.
Customer theft accounts for the biggest share of all retail crime, both by the number of incidents (94 per cent), and by monetary value (42 per cent). The survey recorded 498,405 incidents – around eight per cent higher than the five-year rolling average. However, for the first time the BRC survey also assessed the proportion of retail crimes not reported to the police. The 60 retailers that took part estimated half of all customer theft goes unreported, bringing the real level of theft into the region of 750,000 to one million incidents in one year.
The value of each theft has continued to fall, averaging at £45 a time, as retailers improve the protection of high value items. Mixed retailers, DIY and hardware stores, in particular, experienced worse than average customer theft.
Another disturbing find was the doubling of violence against retail staff compared with last year. At least 22,000 staff suffered physical or verbal attacks or threats, with the overall level of recorded incidents running at 20 per 1,000 staff members. The BRC notes that the actual figure is likely to be higher as a good deal of abuse goes unreported.
Last year’s downturn prompted over half of retailers to invest more in crime prevention and security, with an average spend per store of £13,950. Despite this extra spend, the number of burglaries was up by a third and robberies almost doubled. The research shows burglaries increased to 21 incidents per 100 outlets, reversing a five-year downward trend. But as with customer theft, the value of an individual robbery was down by 61 per cent on last year to an average cost of £2,077.
In another reversal of fortunes, criminal damage more than doubled reaching 47 incidents per 100 outlets – the equivalent to nearly half of all stores being affected – ending a nine-year drop. However, only a third of incidents were reported to the police, again highlighting a worrying discrepancy between police recorded crime and crime experienced by retailers.
While some put the rise in customer theft down to financial hardship, BRC’s director general Stephen Robertson refuses to let the recession to be used as an excuse. “The increase in retail crime during the recession can’t be justified as a move from ‘greed’ to ‘need’. Whatever the motivation, shoplifting is never victimless or acceptable. The cash costs are met by honest customers who end up paying more and the human costs by shop staff who intervene,” he said.
“It’s shocking that a shop theft happens almost every minute, 24 hours a day. We need tougher sentencing to deter thieves and more consistent use of fixed penalty notices between police forces. Too many fines for shoplifting remain unpaid. We need more effective enforcement so they aren’t devalued as a deterrent.”
Based on the findings in this survey, the BRC has compiled a list of recommendations with a major focus on better engagement between police and local shops. Retailers should be genuinely involved in setting local crime priorities and treated as key partners in the community.
The BRC also calls for more police focus on tackling serious and organised crime against businesses, and better co-ordination of offences that cross police boundaries.
Robertson added: “The police and criminal justice system must take retail theft more seriously. There’s been some progress but, with a fifth of retailers saying they don’t report crime because they have no confidence in the police and two thirds of shop thefts going unreported, not enough.”
