Cost of crime and violence against staff on the rise, states the BRC

The 12th Annual Retail Crime SURVEY conducted by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and covering 2004 shows that the total cost of crime has risen sharply on the previous year, while violence against members of staff has burgeoned markedly.

Sponsored by ADT, the latest report suggests that the impact of crime – and crime prevention – cost the retail sector £2.13 billion last year, a 9% increase on 2003. Looking across a five-year time span, this equates to £11.2 billion (or, on average, £2.24 billion per annum).

Total losses from retail crime in 2004 are estimated to have increased by £420 million since 2003, while the total cost of crime – including crime prevention – now tops a substantial £170 million.

Throughout 2004, retailers spent £710 million on in-store crime prevention measures, allocating £3.58 billion over the past five years. Despite that investment, customer theft is a growing problem, with the number of known incidents per 100 outlets increasing in 2004 to 3,385 (an 18% rise). Indeed, since 2000 the incident figure has shot up by an alarming 50%.

Customer theft is estimated by the BRC to have cost the retail sector a massive £589 million last year, a staggering 44% increase on 2003 (when that figure came in at £410 million) but nonetheless still below the five-year average of £655 million.

The value of losses attributed to staff theft now stands at £498 million (the corresponding figure in 2003 was £282 million). This is mainly due to an increase in the value of losses from unexplained staff crime. Nine incidents of staff theft per 1,000 staff members compares with the five-yearly average of eight per 1,000.

More worryingly, perhaps, violence against retail staff is still of grave concern, with verbal abuse cases rising by 35% on 2003 and instances of physical violence showing a 14% increase. This has been a continuous trend since 2000.

In 2004, burglaries cost the retail sector an estimated £55 million, a substantial decrease on the £111 million figure posted in 2003. The number of known burglaries (and attempted burglaries) also decreased to 23 per every 100 outlets. Meantime, the cost of fraud has risen mainly as a result of ‘card not present’ scams. Overall, credit card fraud is down by 24% following the introduction of Chip and PIN.

Speaking to SMT about the survey results, BRC director general Kevin Hawkins said: “This year’s results challenge any supposition that retail crime is on its way down. Plainly, that is not the case. Over the past five years retailers have spent nearly £4 billion on crime prevention measures and yet losses over the same period have been more than double the value of that investment. It is an alarming figure.”

The most disturbing trend for Hawkins, though, is the rise in violence and abuse against staff. “There’s little doubt that this is linked to the growing incidence of ‘yobbish’ behaviour in our society,” added Hawkins. “We need tougher policing and penalties to stop it. The fixed penalty system for shop theft introduced last year by the Home Office appears to have had some acceptance by the sector, although it is still too early to tell if there has been any change in the patterns of offending. A question mark still hangs over the deterrent effect of ticketing on drug-fuelled shop thieves.”

Given the current culture of under-reporting of crime in the retail sector, the figures just released by the BRC may well be the tip of a rather substantial iceberg. According to Hawkins, that is why his organisation has recently launched the Stop Crime Against Retail (SCAR) campaign.

“We will be calling for the police service to modify its systems of crime reporting so that we encourage victims to report crimes,” added Hawkins. “We must also ensure that the Government works with the sector to raise awareness of the real impact of crime and violence against the retail sector.”