Four business crimes an hour

WEST Midland businesses have been hit by crime every 15 minutes – with shoplifting accounting for half of all cases, according to police records in the region.

A study of the figures found that in 2018/19 there were 36,510 crimes committed against businesses across

the region. The data includes offences such as shoplifting, burglary, robbery, theft by an employee, making off without payment and theft from an automatic machine or meter.

Overall, there were just over four crimes an hour on average affecting West Midlands businesses, or 623 business crimes for every 100,000 people living in the area.

However, the number of crimes suffered by businesses has actually decreased compared to the previous year, when there were 37,527.

Of the business crimes recorded in 2018/19, shoplifting was the most common – 18,484 cases in roughly half of all business crimes. The figures also revealed 8,515 cases of making off without paying, 6,446 commercial property burglaries, 1,023 attempted burglaries, and 12 aggravated burglaries, when the criminal carries a weapon. There were also 1,074 robberies, 424 thefts by employees and 466 thefts from an automatic machine or meter.

In 2018/19, the police completed the investigation with no suspect identified in 26,978 cases, or 74 per cent of all business crimes.

That means that in nearly three quarters of cases, the perpetrator got off scot-free.

A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said: “The National Business Crime Centre works closely with businesses and police forces to help raise standards and prevent and combat crime.

“We encourage businesses to report all crimes to their police force and we are currently looking at ways to make online reporting easier to ensure that we have a better understanding of the extent of crimes against business and can develop a joint response to tackle them.”