MANY SHOPKEEPERS may not be reporting incidents of crime against their businesses and staff because they feel the police are unable or unwilling to do anything about them, the chief executive of the Scottish Grocers’ Federation said yesterday, writes Ian Findlay, industrial reporter.

Dundonian John Drummond said the federation—the umbrella body for 2500 convenience stores across the country—was aware of some shop owners who are considering selling up in the face of growing crime against their livelihoods.

The comments by Mr Drummond were made as the organisation released the results of its latest annual crime survey.

The federation said the survey has confirmed that retail crime in Scotland is still rising “at an alarming rate” and underlines the fact that the problem is not going away.

The findings from the latest survey make for some grim reading.

The SGF says that incidence of physical attacks on staff rose by 15% last year alone. The cost to secure and protect premises against potential criminal activity is now costing the sector nearly £2 million a year.

“We are obviously very concerned about this whole situation,” said Mr Drummond. “It seems to be the same year on year.”

The shock new figures from the SGF were released on the eve of the start of the organisation’s annual conference at St Andrews Bay Hotel, which will be attended by over 400 delegates.

It is expected these same delegates will leave Scottish deputy justice minister Hugh Henry—who is due to address the conference today—in no doubt as to their feelings about the serious problems being caused to their businesses by the growth in crime.

Mr Drummond said that crime figures released recently by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) indicated that crime was down in Scotland, but that was certainly not the case for the convenience store sector.

It appeared that much of the crime against convenience stores is not being reported to the police.

“They (shopkeepers) are fed up with some of the behaviour they are having to face, but they feel that the police can’t, or won’t, do anything about it,” said Mr Drummond.

Mr Drummond said that threatening behaviour towards shop staff—carrying with it the fear that the threats would become a reality—is a major problem and that a lot of the crime against retailers was fuelled by the need of perpetrators to finance their drug abuse habits.

As far as tackling the continuing growth in crime is concerned, the SGF sees the use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders as an appropriate measure, but has reservations about how such orders are implemented in Scotland.

“What we want is an acknowledgement that there’s an increase in crime in our business sector and not only an acknowledgement but for something to be done through such measures as ASBOs,” said Mr Drummond.