4 minutes | Wednesday, 4 April 2018
Theft from local convenience stores is costing the UK economy an estimated £193 million – the equivalent of a 7p ‘theft tax’ for every transaction that takes place. In fact, new data from Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) suggests there were a total of over 950,000 thefts of this kind in the UK throughout 2017.
That number has risen dramatically since 2016 where the figure was over 575,000, according the ACS’ latest ‘Crime Report’. The problem is, more than likely, much worse than these figures initially suggest as many more crimes of this nature will often go unreported.
The main reasons cited for thefts of these kinds are brazen opportunism (36%), the motivation of feeding an alcohol or drug addiction (32%) and organized crime (22%). One of the worst side-effects of these thefts can be violence towards convenience store proprietors, with a total of 7,400 instances of violence report last year.
8,800 further burglaries were reported and 9,300 robberies, totalling a cost of £20m to the industry. Further, £24m was lost in issues of fraud.
To discuss the new data and what they believe should be done by both government and police forces to ensure these numbers don’t keep rising is Chris Noice from Association of Convenience Stores.