Assault, fraud, theft dog UK retailers

By Rina Chandran

LONDON (Reuters) - Violent assault, abuse and infected needles are just some of the challenges that British retailers deal with every day, on top of the more prosaic growing competition, higher costs and fickle consumers.

While credit card fraud has fallen, thanks to more secure payments from the chip-and-PIN system, assaults and threats of violence have increased, said British Retail Consortium (BRC) Director-General Kevin Hawkins.

"Retail crime, historically, has always been written off as shoplifting, something rather trivial, something that big fat cat retailers can afford, so we haven't got much support in fighting it," he said.

"But the real issue for retailers isn't chip and PIN, it's the growing issue of conventional crime," Hawkins said at the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit.

Hawkins estimates that violent assault, threats of violence and abuse have risen by about 10-20 percent a year for the past few years.

Stores that sell big-ticket items suffer ram-raiding, where thieves smash a vehicle through doors or windows to gain access. Jewellers and appliance retailers are particularly prone to it, Hawkins said.

"And in pharma stores, staff are threatened with infected needles," he said.

"It's all reflective of the growing crime in society, and I'm not optimistic it can be controlled," he said.

According to the BRC, criminal activity cost UK retailers 2.2 billion pounds last year. On average, theft accounts for losses equal to between 2 and 5 percent of turnover, with 20 percent of all retail fraud linked to credit cards, and employee theft responsible for nearly 53 percent of "unseen losses".

While investments in newer technologies and security systems has helped reduce the amount of employee theft, it has done little to deter customer theft, Hawkins said.

"Did I ever believe that chip and PIN is a huge leap forward and would put us beyond the scope of human ingenuity to commit crime? No," he said.

A fixed penalty on shoplifting has helped somewhat, but it would take a steeper penalty to deter shoplifters, he said.

"But this is just the tip of the iceberg ... the system that will deter criminals is yet to be devised," Hawkins said.