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Arena Magazine 2005 Issue 3 |
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Everyone pays for retail crime
The UK is paying more than £3.4 billion because of the escalating costs of retail crime, a hard-hitting report has revealed.
Shop-theft costs, of around £1.7 billion, are more than matched by the costs to society when the price of dealing with thieves, the impact on the criminal justice system, violence, business disruption and extra security spending are taken into account.
These costs are equivalent to £115 for every UK taxpayer or £58 per head of the population each year, according to the Centre for Retail Research.
Other alarming figures, compiled using government statistics and data from the British Retail Consortium, in the report show:
- Violence against staff costs £33 million and the lost wages and profits caused by crime-related disruption to retailers is £186 million - the same as 9,230 extra nurses or 13,850 more hospital cleaners.
- In 2004 there were around 134,848 acts of violence and 991,130 incidents of threatening behaviour.
- Half of those attacked take two days off work, costing £7 million to employers, and for related hospital treatment a further £7.1 million.
- 11,000 victims of violence left the industry in 2003, costing employers more than £9 million to replace.
- The cost to the police, the courts and the criminal justice system of retail crime amount to £382 million - the equivalent to 11,740 extra police constables on beat patrol.
- Customs and excise tax losses from retail crime amount to almost £170 million - equivalent to 5,500 classroom teachers.
- The amount spent on drugs from the proceeds of shop crime and fraud is more than £553 million.
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