Latest news with #retailcrime
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Police hope new dedicated shoplifting team will bring relief for frustrated retailers
File photo. Photo: 123RF Police say they hope a new team targeting repeat shoplifters in several central and west Auckland suburbs will bring some assurances to frustrated retailers. The team is looking at retail offending in the areas around Mount Roskill, Mount Albert, Avondale, Point Chevalier and Ponsonby. RNZ has reported on Auckland supermarket staff who have been confronted with aggressive and armed shoplifters - including ones who bring in knives and machetes. In recent months, there's been controversy over a police directive to staff saying it will no longer be investigating allegations of shoplifting below $500, which was later canned and criticised by the Police Commissioner as "confusing and unhelpful". Auckland City West Area Prevention Manager, Inspector Wayne Kitcher, told Morning Report that the new initiative has been successful in its first week - where a couple were charged with stealing more than $250,000 worth of goods. "This is a dedicated team that is solely looking at recidivist retail offenders, and I absolutely appreciate that the retailers out there are very are frustrated with how things are going," he said. "And this is our response to hopefully make them feel a bit better, and know that we are actually targeting these people." He said staff on the team would be looking at CCTV footage after reports of shoplifting. Kitcher said usually the offenders would already be known to police and could be tracked down "relatively quickly". When asked by Morning Report whether some officers on this team would be at supermarkets, Kitcher said this team is specifically responding to following up with offending reported. Kitcher was unable to say whether the initiative will be rolled out across wider Auckland or other centres. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Police ‘abandoning shoplifting as a crime'
Police have 'basically abandoned' treating shoplifting like a crime, a senior executive at Mike Ashley's retail empire has claimed. Chris Wootton, chief financial officer at Frasers, which owns Sports Direct, Flannels and House of Fraser, said that its stores had seen an uptick in crime and questioned whether theft was being treated seriously by authorities. He said: 'It doesn't help that the police have basically abandoned shoplifting as a crime.' Frustration has been growing among retailers who are battling an epidemic of shoplifting and assaults on staff across the UK, which is costing them billions of pounds. Mr Wootton said: 'I can definitely say, over the last few years, our staff are suffering more … whether it's verbal or physical [attacks], which is obviously not good.' Police forces have been criticised for not doing enough to crack down on criminals, with 60pc of respondents to a survey of British Retail Consortium (BRC) members saying that last year they believed the police response to retail crimes was either 'poor' or 'very poor'. Retail crime soared to its highest level on record in the year to August 2024, according to BRC data, rising by more than 50pc to above 2,000 incidents a day. In an attempt to address the issue, the Labour Government has pledged to spend £200m on neighbourhood policing and will make it a more serious offence to assault a shopworker. It has also ditched legislation that made it a lower-level offence to steal goods worth less than £200. Dame Diana Johnson, the policing and crime minister, earlier this week vowed to punish thieves, whatever their background amid a simultaneous rise in opportunistic middle-class shoplifting as well as crimes perpetrated by organised gangs. Mr Wootton said: 'If the police are saying 'we're going to invest more in protecting [staff]', that's absolutely a great thing, and I hope they go and do it.' Alex Goss, assistant chief constable of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said: 'We know retail crime has a significant impact on victims, damages businesses and communities and goes far beyond financial loss. 'Over the last two years, we have made significant strides in our fight against retail crime, strengthening relationships with retailers and greatly improving information sharing, which has resulted in a number of high-harm offenders being brought to justice, and the new retail crime strategy builds on this even further.' Impact on Frasers Despite the rise in retail crime, Mr Wootton insisted Frasers had not seen a 'material' impact on its finances as a result, adding: 'We've got pretty strong processes and procedures.' His comments came as Frasers posted a 7.4pc fall in sales to £4.9bn in the year to April 27. Shares in the company fell as much as 4pc after the announcement but later pared back these losses to rise by almost 2pc. It said there had been an 'exceptionally weak period' after last year's Budget, when the Chancellor unveiled a string of tax rises for businesses. Mr Wootton said: 'The period around that October and November was absolutely diabolical. I've been with the business eight years, and that's the worst month or two I've ever seen.' The company said it was working to mitigate the impact of £50m in extra costs linked to the Budget and that recent sales trends 'have been more encouraging' in 2025. Mr Wootton said: '[It is] frustrating with the government penalising industries which really don't need penalising, like hospitality and retail. There's a definite economic illiteracy going on there, to say the least.'
BBC News
6 days ago
- BBC News
City of Wolverhampton taking part in Safer Streets initiative
Bilston town centre will be the focus of a blitz on retail crime and anti-social behaviour on Friday, officials City of Wolverhampton Council's community safety, public protection and licensing teams will be on patrol with the neighbourhood policing team as part of the government-backed Safer Streets teams will advise shoppers on how to avoid scams, talk to businesses about shoplifting and anti-social behaviour and encourage pubs and venues to sign up to the Ask for Angela initiative which helps customers feeling day of action in Bilston is part of several initiatives taking place in Wolverhampton city centre and Wednesfield over the summer, the council said. Councillor Obaida Ahmed, cabinet member for health, wellbeing and community, said: "The Safer Streets initiative is all about ensuring our high streets continue to be safe and welcoming places for everyone, and about sharing information and advice with residents and businesses to help them avoid becoming victims of crime." "This day of action is just one of a series of activities which will be taking place in Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wednesfield over the coming weeks, and if you are in Bilston town centre on Friday, please catch up with our officers to find out more."Insp Steve Edwards, from Bilston police station, added: "We regularly run operations like this to tackle business crime and issues in the local area to make sure everyone visiting Bilston feels safe."Working with our partners as we enforce the national Safer Streets initiative means people will see increased police presence, more crime prevention work and enforcement action this summer." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Concerns about amount spent by retail crime prevention group
The amount spent by a group set up to look at retail crime continues to come under scrutiny. It's been revealed that the Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime, set up three and a half months ago amid a worrying spike in retail crime, has cost around half a million dollars. That includes nearly $330,000 on personnel costs; admin of $65,000; travel and accommodation of nearly $10,000; and $102,000 pay for group members fees, with most of that going to chairperson Sunny Kaushal's $92,000 paycheque. Mr Kaushal has defended the cost, saying that with $1.8 million available to the group, they're actually under-budget. Retail NZ chief executive and member of the Ministerial Advisory Group Carolyn Young spoke to Melissa Chan-Green. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Retail crime advisory group costs $500k in three months
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says he is confident the group has done what it was set up to do. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The justice minister is defending the amount of money spent on the government's retail crime advisory group in 100 days, saying the group has come up with ideas the government will implement to better deal with retail crime. The Labour Party says the half-million dollar sum is hard to stomach, and that ideas the group came up had previously been dismissed as being too dangerous. But the group's chair says its budget is strictly managed and controlled, and he had robust checks and accountability measures in place. The government has announced a suite of law-and-order reforms designed to crack down on retail crime, including on-the-spot fines for shoplifters, citizen's arrest powers, and toughened trespass laws. The reforms were suggested by the ministerial advisory group, chaired by Sunny Kaushal. Answering a parliamentary question from Labour's police spokesperson Ginny Andersen, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said "The Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime has spent $507,468.71 from 1 March 2025 to 10 June 2025." Those costs include personnel costs ($329,900.93), chair and member fees ($102,788.26), travel and accommodation ($9,605.71), and admin ($65,173.81). Member remuneration is in accordance with the Cabinet fees framework, with the Ministry of Justice reimbursing invoiced fees. On Tuesday, Goldsmith told media the MAG's budget was $1.8m a year, so it was under budget. "The point of the advisory group is to come up with well-thought-through, oven-ready legislation for us to get on with, and that's what they've done," he said. However, some of the policies still needed time to work through before the bill is introduced, or during the select committee process. When announcing the trespass law changes, Goldsmith said the government would explore how best to support retailers when distributing notices to those who refuse to engage. He also said the precise details on the use of facial recognition or CCTV to identify shoplifters would be "argued out" over the select committee process. Andersen said it was unclear why that amount of money had been spent by the group. She said when she was police minister, Kaushal had come to her suggesting a citizen's arrest policy, but it was dismissed as police had advised it was dangerous. "It does seem an exorbitant amount for ideas that were given to our government for free, and ideas that have been advised as dangerous," she said. Goldsmith, however, said he was confident the group had done what it was set up to do, and criticised Labour for not implementing such ideas. "A lot of them weren't taken up because their government was frankly soft on crime and they weren't actually listening and making the changes that needed to be made." Kaushal said the group operated under a clearly defined and stringently managed operating budget, controlled and overseen by the Ministry of Justice's finance team. "In line with public expectations around the responsible use of funds, I have robust checks and accountability measures in place across all areas of expenditure," he said. Kaushal said the group's "strict cost control and efficient operations" had already delivered a significant savings underspending from its allocated annual operating budget. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
