The BRC is calling for reform, but that should mean ending misuse and inconsistency, as well as ensuring that penalty notices are used only in the limited set of circumstances set out in the guidelines.
In reaction to a Ten-Minute Rule Bill by Anne McIntosh MP, the BRC agreed that Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND) are currently ineffective when it comes to deterring crime. The retailers’ organisation said McIntosh is right to draw attention to the inconsistent way in which PNDs are applied for shoplifting and other crimes against business, but they cannot be scrapped while there’s no suitable system in place for alternative punishments.
Speaking to info4security.com, BRC director general Stephen Robertson commented: “We agree that sentences for shop crime are often too weak and that fixed penalties provide little deterrent, but simply scrapping them will not help the situation.”
Enforcing the guidelines
Robertson explained: “Fixed penalties may be appropriate for first time offences, but it’s clear that some offenders are receiving them on a repeated basis. Reform is needed, but that means tackling inconsistency and properly enforcing the guidelines for their use. Just removing theft from the list of offences attracting a fixed penalty without having alternatives in place risks the creation of more confusion, not to mention leaving thieves unpunished.”
The Ten-Minute Rule Bill amends the guidance issued under Section 6 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. This is the guidance given to chief police officers. The Bill deletes theft from the list of offences in the Criminal Justice and Police Act that attract a penalty notice.
The BRC has used the publication of its annual Retail Crime Survey for 2008 to call instead for the guidance given to police officers on the use of fixed penalties to be properly enforced such that they are only used as originally intended. That is for first time offenders, thefts below GB pound 200 in value and with the victim’s/retailer’s consent.
Crime drop could be wiped out
Meanwhile, retailers are now said to be seriously concerned that the economic slowdown will wipe out falls in retail crime achieved across the past 12 months.
The aforementioned 2008 Retail Crime Survey shows that there have been a third of a million shoplifting offences. In real terms, this equates to one offence every 90 seconds. Encouragingly, employee theft fell by 56% in the year to last April. Retailers believe the reductions were a result of economic stability during the period, improved policing and their own spending on crime prevention.
The BRC survey also shows the growth of Internet fraud as online retailing expands. Almost all of the retailers selling online who took part in the survey suffered at least once incidence of fraud in the past year. Two thirds said those incidents are increasing.
Stephen Robertson said: “The credit crunch threatens to bring an abrupt end to this trend. Recent reports have focused on a surge in shoplifting and fuel thefts. Retailers are preparing themselves for a rapid rise in offences and duly adapting their crime prevention measures.”
Significant rise in theft
Using modelling from the last recession, a leaked Home Office document warned of a significant rise in theft, burglary and violence as a direct result of the current economic downturn. This year’s survey highlights the fact that shoplifting is the most costly crime for retail outlets, accounting for 64% of all retail crime losses. That’s well above burglary (16%), robberies (8%) and employee theft (8%).