Retailers are worried that the credit crunch will have a negative impact upon efforts to try and reduce crime in stores, a new report has said.
Those questioned as part of the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC’s) Retail Crime Survey think that a recent decrease in crime was witnessed because the country was enjoying economic stability.
In the year to April, consumer theft was down by 26%, yet a third of a million shoplifting offences were still witnessed, it revealed.
The survey found that 64% of all retail crime losses were thanks to shoplifting, while employee theft stood at 8%.
Only last week the organisation said that shoplifting penalties should be reformed but not abandoned.
Director general at the BRC Stephen Robertson said in response to the survey: “The falls in retail crime revealed by the BRC survey are not enough and cannot be taken for granted. Day and night, seven days a week, someone steals from a shop every 90 seconds.”
He added: “The credit crunch threatens to bring an abrupt end to this trend. Recent reports have focused on a surge in shoplifting and fuel thefts. Retailers are preparing for a rapid rise in offences and are adapting crime prevention methods.”
Guidelines for the government were issued by the retail organisation, such as ending misuse of penalty notices for disorder and taking account of all costs when sentencing for commercial burglary.
Online fraud has also started to increase, the BRC found. In the year until April, 64% of retailers said this has risen.
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