Shopliftin​g to be at its highest this Christmas period

In a new report, ‘Shoplifting for Christmas 2012’ carried

out by the Centre for Retail Research, research found that UK retailers could lose 522 million punds through shoplifting, 431 million pounds through employee theft, and 47 million pounds through vendor and distribution losses over this busy Christmas period.

Commenting on the findings, Professor Joshua Bamfield, author of the report and director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: "The Christmas season is an especially attractive time for criminals. Thieves take advantage of busy stores to steal high-value, high-demand goods. As a result, retailers face a big threat from professional and semi-professional thieves, many of whom steal goods with the intention of re-selling them. Organised retail crime is a major concern for retailers – especially since the average amount stolen per incident is much higher than normal thefts."

Overall, the study found that the cost of shoplifting and fraud to retailers over the Christmas period would be 5.8 billion euros in Europe, and 8.9 billion dollars in the USA.