Shoplifters winning the war
Criminals are targeting high-end goods from luxury retail shops, and store managers taking the brunt of it say they’ve had enough.
Official figures show police are catching and prosecuting only a small fraction of shoplifters.
Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, founder of high-end fashion brand World, said offenders were hard to spot and the process of holding them to account was slow.
Frequently, the shoplifters were ‘‘nice wealthy women’’.
By law, shopkeepers cannot detain them and most shoplifters knew this, said L’Estrange-Corbet.
‘‘You can’t catch them and hold them in the shop until the police arrive because the police aren’t coming for another three weeks, so what are you going to do, feed and clothe the criminal while you’re waiting?’’
She said as long as police saw the crime as a low priority, the frequency of the offending would only increase.
‘‘Whether you steal a can of beans or rob a bank you’re still a criminal and you should be charged accordingly, but unfortunately in New Zealand it’s not given a lot of priority.’’
As a result, L’Estrange-Corbet felt the the law was on the side of the offenders, and stores had resorted to electronic tagging systems, cameras, and guards at the door to even the playing field.
‘‘Unfortunately consumers pay for that because you have to pass the cost on.’’
There were more than 46,600 retail robberies, burglaries, and thefts last year, figures obtained under the Official Information Act show.
But only 14,000 offenders were dealt with by police and possibly
Whether you steal a can of beans or rob a bank you’re still a criminal. Denise L’Estrange-Corbet
even fewer ended up in court.
January had already seen 4400 robberies, burglaries, and thefts and only 1080 offenders were caught by police.
Retail New Zealand general manager Greg Harford said the figures were worrying, but a lot of retail crime went unreported.
‘‘We think much of the issue is that, given other pressures, police often don’t prioritise retail crime, and that a formal court proceeding for theft is complex, timeconsuming and is often out of proportion for petty offences,’’ he said.
Farmers loss prevention manager Michael Hulme said large-scale crime would always take precedence.
‘‘If I’m a retailer and something’s just been stolen and I call the police and say come and investigate it, it’s probably not likely to get much of a response,’’ he said.
Hannah Rutherford, who owns The Collective in Christchurch, says the fashion and homeware store has been hit three times in a week, with thieves making off with items worth hundreds of dollars.
Security footage showed the offenders were ‘‘not the kind of people you want to confront’’.
Numerous minor thefts added to the store’s losses.
At Gucci’s flagship store in downtown Auckland, saleswoman Iloa Koko said shoplifting was a continuing problem in the neighbourhood, which included high-end shops such as Dior and Louis Vuitton.
‘‘It’s always an issue, especially in this part of town.’’
Flo & Frankie director Chrissy Conyngham said its handbags, which retailed for between $100 and $500, were so regularly targeted it made her reconsider stocking them.
Bags were a popular target because, unlike clothes, size did not matter, and they could be sold easily at markets.
‘‘Sometimes you can find security tags in some corner of the shop that have been pulled off but you don’t know what’s been taken necessarily unless you do a full stocktake.’’