The Association of Convenience Stores publish their Crime Report of 2023
Posted on in Business News
The report from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) estimates that there were over 1.1m incidents of theft reported last year. The most commonly stolen items as reported by retailers are meat, alcohol and confectionery – typically high-value items that can then be sold on by those with a drug or alcohol addiction, or part of wider organised crime groups.
ACS has called on police forces and the Government to do more to take retail crime seriously and support local businesses. The five-point plan includes:
1. Introduce a ‘Most Wanted’ list of shop thieves in each police force area, where prolific offenders can be banned from retail areas or referred to rehabilitation programmes.
2. Review the impact of new legislation that makes attacking a public facing worker (including shop staff) an aggravated offence.
3. Invest in rehabilitation programmes for offenders to break the cycle of offending and ineffective punishment.
4. Encourage local forces to use the tools available to them to deal with anti-social behaviour, such as the Community Trigger and Community Remedy powers.
5. The Treasury should incentivise investment in crime prevention measures.
Additional key findings from the Crime Report include:
• 63% of shop theft is committed by repeat offenders.
• 79% of retailers believe that the cost-of-living crisis has led to an increase in theft.
• 87% of colleagues working in convenience stores have experienced verbal abuse over the last year.
• Retailers estimate that just 16% of crimes against their business are reported to the police.
• £228m was invested by convenience retailers in crime prevention measures over the last year.
Please get in touch with ACS if you have any questions about the Crime Report findings.