Retail crime tops $5b in UK

LONDON - A surge in shoplifting, fraud and robberies cost UK retailers 2.1 billion ($5.4 billion) in 2004 as violence and intimidation against staff increased at a worrying rate, a survey shows.

In its 12th annual retail crime survey, the British Retail Consortium said the impact of crime and the cost of measures to combat it rose 9 per cent from the previous year as losses from shoplifting rose 44 per cent to an estimated 589 million.

Incidents of known theft by customers - as opposed to staff - rose to no less than 34 per retail outlet despite the 710 million spent on anti-pilfering measures by the industry in 2004.

Staff, too, are filling their pockets like never before. The value of losses attributed to staff rose to almost 500 million, a 77 per cent increase on the year before.

But BRC director-general Kevin Hawkins said the most alarming trend was an upswing in violence against staff.

Verbal abuse to staff rose by 35 per cent and physical violence by 14 per cent in 2004, and the true extent of retail crime remains hidden, the survey found.

Britain was second only to Iceland in employee theft in 25 countries.

- REUTERS