Shop owners frustrated as repeat offenders strike time and again

“It’s far from unique to Sligo, it’s all over the country, but my issue is that we have an awful lot of repeat offenders.

“I have one guy who has robbed me four times in the last week to ten days, I have him on CCTV every time and I’m just waiting to get him before the courts.

“It’s people, in my experience here on Castle Street, who have addiction issues where the problem is. For other stores I’m hearing about thefts from stores where a sports bag is lifted in the hope of a re-sale, they are robbing tracksuits and going to pharmacies in Sligo, and they rob perfume.”

Asked how hard it was hitting his business in cash terms, he said it’s difficult to nail a figure down accurately, but he added: “I’d say €10,000 a year would not be an exaggeration”.

He said a push is being made to ensure that thieves who have committed multiple offences in multiple towns have their offences grouped together when they come before the courts.

“We really need to get to that as that will mean instead of a guy being up in court for one incident of shoplifting, he will be facing charges for as many as one hundred incidents of shoplifting and then there has to be a different punishment for the crimes then,” he told the Sligo Weekender.

One of the hidden issues with this type of crime is the amount of time it takes for the shop owner to process what has happened and get it to the gardaí, he told the Weekender he has often spent up to an hour trying to find an incident on CCTV: “Let’s say someone steals a six-pack of beer. Ok, a small thing in cash terms, but by the time the shop owner goes through and downloads from his/her CCTV and gets that to the gardaí is considerable, in my case I could be doing that numerous times on any given day, but I would encourage others to do so as well, these crimes must be reported and the gardaí are urging us to do so as that gives a truer reflection of the crime level and will play some part in making the argument for more gardaí ‘on the street’,” he said.

“It builds the garda database and points to the real number of crimes, I am appealing to people to report every time they are robbed, no matter what the value of the theft,” he said.

Counting the cost, Finbarr Filan said in addition to enforcement through the courts organisations such as ISME and RGDATA are raising the issues.

“We brought this theft issue up at our last two retail forums in Dublin.

“There is an assumption out there that petty crime or shoplifting is a ‘victimless crime’, but it isn’t. It’s the same shopkeeper getting hit every time. There’re guys in bigger stores saying they are losing €50 to €60,000 per year and that has to be paid for. My level is not anywhere near as high as that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I'm losing somewhere between €5,000 and €10,000 per year on shoplifting. That figure of €10,000 would not be a surprise for me if I was to sit down and try and track it. You have to take it on the chin and go through the courts/garda system.

“We all carry a thing in our shops called ‘unknown shrink’ and part of that is theft/shoplifting,” he added.

Gardaí have confirmed a significant increase in thefts from shops in Sligo.

They told the Sligo Weekender they have noted a spike in thefts in Sligo town over the last seven days.

Separately, new figures from Phonewatch show there has been a 17% increase in burglaries across the Sligo-Leitrim Garda Division in the last 12 months.

Phonewatch says that recent CSO recorded crime statistics show that the Sligo/Leitrim area recorded one of the highest increases in burglaries in the country.

There was a total of 151 recorded burglaries across Sligo and Leitrim over the last 12 months.

In relation to the thefts in Sligo town, Gardaí are asking shop owners and business owners in Sligo to be vigilant and to contact Gardaí immediately if they are a victim of theft or if they noticed suspicious activity on or near their business premises. If you do notice something, then a call should be made immediately to Sligo Garda Station on 071 9157000or the Garda Confidential Line - 1800666111.

Gardaí have stressed the importance of highlighting these crimes at the earliest opportunity to prevent any such further crimes.