Call for bounties on burglars

Cambridge based BA Pumps and Sprayers has struck a retailing deal with another local business to grow sales.

BA Pumps and Sprayers has teamed with AGrowQuip to carry their stock in stores.

Last month the AGrowQuip sales and marketing teams, from Silverdale, Pukekohe, Hamilton, and Cambridge visited BA Pumps and Sprayers in Cambridge.

It allowed the businesses to meet each other’s teams, learn more about their products, and discover how they can best serve their customers.

BA Pumps and Sprayers are New Zealand Made, primarily manufacturing at their premises here in Cambridge.

AGrowQuip says it is thrilled to be able to offer customers a product with such a strong history in New Zealand and are confident our customers will be impressed with their range and quality.

AGrowQuip and BA Pumps and Sprayers Team photo from left to right: back row: Gordon Toms (AGrowQuip Silverdale Sales Rep), Lloyd Salt (AGrowQuip Cambridge Sales Rep), Collin Henderson (AGrowQuip Hamilton Sales Rep and Key Accounts Manager), Chris Du Plessis (AGrowQuip Silverdale Sales Rep), Dave Cameron (AGrowQuip Hamilton Sales Rep), Darsh Prajapati(AGrowQuip Aftermarket Specialist), Cass

Brown (AGrowQuip Parts Technician), Barry Beukes(AGrowQuip Pukekohe Sales Rep), Glenn Hawthorne (AGrowQuip Cambridge Sales Rep), Matt E(BA Pumps Production Manager), Richard Skeates (BA Pumps Research & Development Manager), Chris Hughes (AGrowQuip Cambridge & Hamilton Branch Manager), Murray Watson (AGrowQuip Silverdale/ Whangarei Branch Manager), Ethan Hartstone(AGrowQuip Cambridge Sales Rep), Robbie Barrowcliffe (AGrowQuip Cambridge Sales Rep).

Front row: Craig Downey(BA Pumps National Sales Manager) Malany Turner (AGrowQuip Marketing Coordinator) Harley Connell (AGrowQuip Hamilton Sales Rep), Nick Pilcher (AGrowQuip Hamilton Sales Rep), Stephen Collin (AGrowQuip Pukekohe Sales Rep) Winnie Singleton (BA Pumps Customer Services and Sales), Morrin Cornes (BA Pumps Upper North Island Territory Manager), Hannah Austin (AGrowQuip Marketing Coordinator).

Auckland’s a wild west of crime, so it is time to put bounties on the heads of burglars and ram-raiders, and our insurance companies should stump up the money.

This is the suggestion of one of Auckland’s mayoral candidates, who says if he is elected he would work with insurance companies to offer rewards to catch criminals.

Sick of a graffiti and crimeblighted city, John Lehmann came up with the scheme, and I really do sympathise.

The businesses in my suburb of Epsom are suffering.

In the last two weeks I have chatted to the woman in charge of my local Freshchoice supermarket about the plague of theft and criminal damage the store has suffered.

I spoke with the owner of my local bottle shop, who has started keeping his door locked after dark, and only lets people in when he judges they are not a threat.

He has had too many scary moments. He has lost too much stock.

There is an antique store owner having to repaint her sign after she fell victim to a daredevil tagger who climbed up to daub their name across it.

The dairy nearest my house

OPINION:

has new doors after being ram raided.

It is depressing. It is alienating. But would putting up rewards be a good use of my insurer’s money?

I pay my insurer for catastrophe cover. A broken window and a ding don’t bother me. It is fire, earthquake and rearending an expensive car that worry me.

Those are the things I insure my house, contents and car against.

Lehman says there is no honour among thieves, and he would expect to see people inform on the bad guys for money.

It is definitely worth a try, he feels.

One teething problem with his plan is that insurance companies are not on board.

Neither Tower, nor IAG (which owns the State, AMI and NZI brands) were keen on the idea when I asked them.

And there are other issues. Haydn Smith, the chief executive of Crimestoppers, a charity which makes it easy for people to phone in tips to be passed to police, says rewards are offered in New Zealand only in the most serious of cases that have gone unsolved for many years.

It is not in our culture to put bounties on heads, and there is reticence about rewards since the debacle in which a criminal claimed a reward for returning priceless military service medals he had had a hand in stealing from the Waiouru National Army Museum in December 2007.

Community good, not money, is the reward for passing information to police.

Rewards can be of use. When a reward is offered for information on a violent crime overseas, it increases media coverage, encouraging people to come forward with information.

But most rewards offered go unclaimed.

The British charity Crimestoppers often offers rewards for information on serious crimes.

Its 2020 ‘‘impact report’’ says it offers rewards of up to £10,000 (NZ$19,000) on serious cases, often when investigators are struggling because they face a wall of silence, or a crucial piece of evidence is missing.

‘‘Over the past year we have offered nearly 50 enhanced rewards which have generated vital leads for senior investigating officers,’’ the report said, but did not reveal how many were paid out.

Its financial statements show it paid out £10,450 that year, and £1000 the following year.

Tempting as Lehman’s plan appears, I’m not convinced it would be a good use of my insurance premiums.