136,000 small firms will be hit by crime survey

The study by AXA Insurance suggests that the most frequent crime small businesses will fall victim to will be theft, followed by malicious damages such as vandalism, and forcible entry to their premises.

The study says that 682,000 small-sized businesses – around 62 per cent – claim to have suffered from crime over the past five years.

Just over 300,000 or 28 per cent, have suffered from theft from their premises during working hours, and around 294,000 (27 per cent) claim to have had stock stolen from their shops and offices outside working hours.

Of the companies interviewed for the research, the hotel and catering sector appears to have suffered the most from criminal activity over the past five years, with 84 per cent of companies interviewed in the sector claiming to have been a victim of crime since 1999.

This is followed by 74 per cent of construction companies, 71 per cent of retailers, 50 per cent of professional services and 38 per cent of manufacturing firms.

Neil Mercier, property insurance manager at AXA, said: "Crime is a very serious problem affecting the business community, and in extreme circumstances organisations can find it difficult to recover. The average crime-related business claim settlement is £3,722, but in the case of arson, for example, the damage can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"The good news is that businesses can dramatically reduce the chances of becoming a victim of crime by taking a few simple steps, such as making sure that alarms are fitted and used and ensuring that all windows have secure locks."

Vista says that increasing demand for its till monitoring product, TEAM, reflects statistics which show a rise in staff theft – as well as a rise in the identification of such theft.

Divisional director Mark Pritchard said retailers were becoming increasingly aware of the potential role of interrogative CCTV-based loss prevention technology.

"For the 12 months ending 2003, compared with 2002, the British Retail Consortium's survey shows an increase in known incidents per one thousand staff from seven to nine

“There was also an increase in known incidents per hundred outlets from 37 to 65, and a significant increase in known costs from £541 in 2002 to £852 in 2003," Pritchard said.

Tyco Fire and Security says that a growing number of retailers worldwide are adopting source tagging solutions, such as its own Sensormatic EAS labels, to improve loss prevention.

The company says its source tagging business grew by 38 per cent worldwide compared to 2003.