Retailers call for help as shop crime rises

Retailers called for extra help from the Government yesterday after losses from shop crime jumped by £100m in a year to £1.8bn.

The rising cost of burglary, theft and fraud from shops in 2000 was revealed in the ninth annual retail crime survey by the British Retail Consortium. Bill Moyes, director general of the consortium, said the Government needed to "meet business part way" in tackling the problem.

Despite the rising losses, shop spending on crime prevention fell from £800m to £600m last year so the total cost of retail crime, with losses and crime-prevention spending, fell from £2.5bn to £2.4bn. Although the number of staff thefts fell, the cost of the problem rose from £590m to £640m.

Physical violence against staff increased to seven incidents per 1,000 staff from five the previous year. Preventing theft by customers was the main cause of the violence. Over the past five years, retailers have spent £2.7bn implementing crime reduction strategies such as CCTV, alarm systems and product tagging.

Mr Moyes said: "These figures show how determined retailers have been to tackle this serious problem. Massive investment of resources over recent years has led to some significant successes. But retail crime does not stop at the shop door. The areas of criminal activity that concern retailers most are the problems that effect everyone, youth crime, the problems of drug-related crime and the disturbing increases in violence and robbery."

He added: "The retail sector is not immune to the forces at work in society at large and as an integral part of the local community we play a vital role in tackling criminal behaviour but we cannot do everything.

"The Government has made it clear that crime reduction is everyone's business. If this is so it needs to meet business part way and demonstrate a practical commitment which we do not see at present. We have played our part and done so successfully; we look for the Government to play its part."