Retailers demand tougher measures to combat underage thieves 

Complaints to gardaí by retailers have increased by 14% over the past 12 months.

Retailers have demanded tougher measures to combat underage thieves as the industry reels from a surge in robberies and violence towards staff spirals out of control.

Shop owners have described to the Oireachtas trade committee of being assaulted by gangs of young robbers and having weapons pulled on them.

Others said they had spent tens of thousands of euro to combat the rampant thievery in their stores. 

All those who gave evidence agreed that a lack of effective deterrents has led to chronic retail crime by small gangs of youths.

Complaints to gardaí by retailers have increased by 14% over the past 12 months. Yet most of those addressing the committee claimed it is generally not worth their while reporting petty crime as there is no benefit in doing so.

Instead the retailers demanded tougher measures for young offenders, including:

• Each theft carried out by youths aged less than 16 to be referred to child and family agency Tusla;
• Judges to be given the same discretion when sentencing those convicted of a crime against a retail worker as they would have for offences committed against gardaí and first responders;
• A new law dedicated to targeting retail theft and ensuring that those convicted will “face stiff sanctions and an obvious deterrent”.

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association estimates that retail crime costs retailers over of €1.62bn each year. 

The Global Retail Theft Barometer has found Ireland has the highest cost per capita of retail crime (€339.31) — significantly more than both second and third placed countries, Iceland and Denmark.

The committee heard from several retailers who spoke of their increasing frustration with the escalating and unchecked robbery of their businesses.

Michael O’Sullivan, the owner of a Spar on Talbot St, just off O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre, claimed that he notes between five and 10 incidents of thieving in his shop each day.

He said that on a recent Sunday morning, he had been kicked in the side when challenging a gang of youths stealing alcohol from his shop.

“That’s where the serious stuff is, where you don’t know their level, if you have to let them go or not,” he said.

Mr O’Sullivan said despite having pressed the store’s panic button and Store Street Garda Station being only 300 yards away, it had been eight minutes before gardaí arrived on the scene.

The committee heard repeatedly that a lack of both Garda presence and obvious deterrents has fuelled the rise in shoplifting and petty thefts of retailers across the country.

Colin Fee, the proprietor of a robbery-plagued store in Dundalk, said that one particular offender who was aged under-16 “must’ve done us 100 times”.

The committee heard repeatedly that a lack of both Garda presence and obvious deterrents has fuelled the rise in shoplifting and petty thefts of retailers across the country.

“The older he got the more vicious and aggressive he got. He ended up pulling a knife. Now he’s in Oberstown. Why did it take so long?” he said.

Meanwhile, Noel Dunne, a Centra owner on Parnell St in Dublin, said that he is “out €60,000 or €70,000 a year before we turn on a light” due to constant low-level robbery incidents and the need to protect his shop with private security.

“They come in organised gangs, four or five in it together, they come on their wretched electric scooters, 14-16 year olds, and they’re completely brazen because they know they can’t be touched, they run out the door and that’s it,” he said.

Mr Dunne noted that he has 14 security cameras, which “may seem excessive, but nothing is better than a uniform walking past my store”.