The Home Office have published the latest figures from the 2016 Commercial Victimisation Survey, showing that there were around 3.5m incidents of customer theft against businesses in 2016, up from 3.4m in the year before, with a total of 5.2m crimes committed against wholesale and retail premises.
The survey also reports that 37% of premises in the wholesale and retail sector experienced some form of crime, and that overall, over a quarter (27%) of all shop theft incidents in the wholesale and retail sector in 2016 included food and grocery items. The average cost of shop theft incidents has also increased, with the cost per incident rising from £35 in 2012 to £54 in 2016.
Figures from the ACS Crime Report 2017, show that on average, shop theft alone cost the convenience sector over £2,600 per store last year, with the most commonly stolen items being alcohol, meat and confectionery.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The Commercial Victimisation Survey further highlights the importance of tackling crimes against retailers. Shop theft has a significant impact on hard working retailers and must be taken seriously by police forces. One of our key priorities for the General Election is to ensure that tackling shop theft is high on the agenda both nationally and locally.”
Ahead of the General Election, ACS has set out four key areas for the next Government, one of which is ‘to tackle shop theft by creating a uniform reporting mechanism for local shops to report low value shop theft offences, and making better use of existing sanctions for theft.’
The full Commercial Victimisation Survey is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/612215/crime-against-businesses-2016-hosb0617.pdf
