Small firms hit by €650m thefts

SMALL businesses are facing an annual €650m theft bill and gardaí can’t tackle the problem, a business group has claimed.

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association (ISME) has hit out at garda failure to crack down on business theft. ISME chief executive Mark Fielding said gardaí have given up on shoplifting because they are short of resources.

Around 62% of retailers have been the victim of shoplifting and each faces an average annual loss of €7,000. During busy periods like Christmas shoplifters steal more than €30m from businesses.

“The guards are there to be seen, but they are like scarecrows which can be easily avoided by criminals. Visibility needs to be backed up with action,” said Mr Fielding.

“The majority of shoplifting is being carried out by people who are young, but shop staff can’t take the chance and confront them,” he said.

Mr Fielding said that retailers have been forced to tackle the problem themselves.

“The gardaí have handed it over to the security guards which is costing big money,” Mr Fielding said. Small and medium sized businesses fork out 1.2bn on security costs each year.

Mr Fielding believes a specialist garda unit to deal with shoplifting is urgently needed.

“We need to have a unit outside of uniformed gardaí who will handle this exclusively. This is the way it works in the British midlands and it’s very effective,” he said.

ISME is also calling for an increase in close circuit television cameras (CCTV) in towns and cities to deal with shoplifters.

“We hoped when 2000 new gardaí were promised that it would help, but obviously that never happened,” Mr Fielding said.

And it appears shoplifting is on the rise throughout the EU. According to the European Retail Theft Barometer (ERTB) 65% of retailers found that police are unwilling to deal with shoplifting cases.

An ISME survey showed only one in 10 businesses believe shoplifters will be caught.

“Businesses know that the gardaí don’t give this problem the time anymore. Most of the time the perpetrators will just look at you because they know you can’t do anything to them,” Mr Fielding said.