2 minute read
Putting retail crime behind bars
TRIBUTES have been paid to a Dublin shopkeeper who died in early April. Akram Hussein is believed to have suffered a heart attack after chasing an alleged shoplifter from the Centra outlet where he worked in the Drumcondra area of the capital. Peggy Groarke, the shop owner, set up a book of condolences and was flooded with goodwill from the local community. “I’ve never seen anything like the love people have had for Akram,” she said. Hussein’s death illustrates how retail continues to be a front-line for theft, intimidation, and crime. In a survey of 490 retailers, conducted by the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association of Ireland (CSNA) in 2020, 80% of retailers reported they or a member of their staff had experienced an incident involving aggressive, violent and threatening behaviour within the previous three months. The CSNA National Security Report revealed that 58% of retailers are subjected to verbal abuse on a weekly basis; 23% endure abuse daily. RGDATA has yet to conduct its own crime survey for 2021, but these statistics do not surprise Tara Buckley, the organisation’s Director General. “Retail crime has always been a big issue for convenience and supermarkets and it remains one,” she said. “There’s a huge impact on owners and staff. It’s very stressful to work in a situation where you have to deal with this on a weekly basis. For some communities, it has impacted the availability of their stores late at night.” Vincent Jennings, CEO of the CSNA, knows the terrible ramifications of retail crime. In 1995, his father was killed as a result of the behaviour of petty criminals. Recently, he had to “dampen a parent’s outrage after their child was barred from a shop. The child was hanging around with a group and being sent into the shop to steal. The parents would not accept their child was stealing.” For Jennings, the inability to stamp out shoplifting and other retail crime remains one of Ireland’s greatest failures. “We brought down traffic offences and deaths on the road, but this has not improved over 30 years,” he reasons. Retailers contend that a zero tolerance approach is necessary to shoplifting. But are the Gardaí doing enough to prevent this so-called “petty crime”? Retailers believe there should be a stronger Garda presence on the high street to dissuade people from contemplating crimes. The CSNA National Security Report revealed that over half of retailers (53%) do not know the Crime Prevention Officer (CPO) in their area. Nine out of 10 retailers stated that legislation around retail crime, and its enforcement by Gardaí, was “insufficient”. Courts continue to hand out sentences. Last November, for example, a serial shoplifter in Galway received 12 months in prison following a spate of shoplifting and public order charges around the city centre. In January, a woman in Tipperary was jailed for four months following a shoplifting spree. Yet most shoplifters are repeat offenders who do not receive a serious conviction until their offences rack up into the dozens. In February, for example, a woman from Cork was jailed for 10 months after clocking up her 100th conviction for retail theft. “The biggest frustration is the person convicted of robbing a store
