Government has published the results of the latest Commercial Victimisation Survey, showing that the retail and wholesale sector experiences more crime than all other sectors.
The survey revealed that shop theft is the most common crime experienced by wholesalers and retailers, with 3.3 million incidents of customer theft reported in the survey.
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “The findings of the Survey highlight the scale of the issue of shop theft to retail and wholesale businesses, our most recent figures show that shop theft costs the Convenience sector £44 million last year. We continue to work closely with the Home Office to ensure that shop theft is taken seriously by the police and not considered a victimless crime.”
Premises in the wholesale and retail sector also experienced high rates of repeat victimisation, with each victim experiencing an average of 38 incidents in the last year. Thefts were associated with the highest rates of repeat victimisation with each theft victim experiencing an average of 50 incidents of this crime type in the last year.
Other findings from the survey include:
• The proportion of wholesale and retail premises that were victimised has fallen from 53% in 2012 to 45% in 2013
• Reporting rates for crimes such as thefts by employees were low (30%)
Earlier this week, ACS released its 2014 Crime Report, revealing that over the last year, shop theft alone cost convenience stores an estimated £44m.
