Small firms have no faith in justice after crimes

Owners of small companies have no faith that criminals who target their trade will be brought to justice, at a time when the total cost of crime against businesses amounts to €1.62bn per year.

Their disillusionment is not confined to the judiciary. Almost one third of business owners that were surveyed by the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Isme) — as part of its 2015 national crime survey — said they were dissatisfied with the Garda response when they reported being the victim of crime.

More than a third of the survey respondents (36%) were impacted by crime in the last 12 months at an average cost per company of just over €14,000, and the vast majority were victims of crime more than once.