ACT NOW ON SHOP CRIME | Viewpoint: Pete Cheema

By admin in Talking Points 13th November 2023

Broken glass, broken health, and broken lives. Sadly, this is the cold reality for retailers and shop staff in our convenience stores up and down the country.

All because retail crime is out of control. Would any reasonable person want to put up with that as part of the ‘day job’?

We have seen a torrent of widespread shop theft, some of which involves organised crime groups, reports of staff resigning because they fear for their safety, and suspected losses worth millions of pounds to local businesses.

Thieves are becoming bolder, and more aggressive and violent, and abusive behaviour is on the rise. In just the past two years, about 8,000 cases of in-store abuse and assaults have been reported to Police Scotland under the Protection of Workers Act 2021.

This includes more than 3,000 common or serious assaults.

Worryingly, it is now common for these crimes to involve the use of knives or even weapons such as machetes. This is utterly unacceptable and must not be allowed to become the norm.

Financial support is required from the Scottish government to fund a refresh of SGF’s “Don’t’ Put Up With It” campaign to drive home the message that retailers and shop workers are not fair game for criminals and that culprits will be prosecuted. Ministers have said no money is currently available for this, but our question is: “If not now, when?”

The First Minister stated that crime is at a 50-year low, while in the same breath claiming the duty is on retailers to fix problems with under-reporting. It beggars belief!

Retailers are working hard to reduce crime, investing nearly £1bn into crime prevention measures in the last year in the UK.

But now we need the police to do more to prioritise retail crime and bring levels of violence, abuse and theft down for good. If there is not action now by our politicians, the situation will only get worse.

Enough is enough.