Shoplifting scourge... ‘Those involved know there is no deterrent’

Shop lifting is rife across Meath, hitting struggling businesses very hard, while robberies and anti-social behaviour are also causing huge problems for store owners.

That’s according to local retailers who have spoken out about the problem following the recent Oireachtas Business Committee hearing, where politicians heard that shoplifting was costing the retail sector in Ireland €1.6bn annually.

Jim Bird who runs Supervalu in Navan and Centra stores in Athboy and Ballivor said there is no real deterrent for those involved in shoplifting.

"We haven't a huge problem, because we have had to hire security, but is hard to imagine how bad it would be without security," he says.

"We wouldn't have any more (theft) than any other business, but it is very common and is very common among young people.

"There are also people involved in scams and attempting to push full trolleys out of the shop without paying. Our security is very good so we would very rarely lose a trolley load.

"Those involved are well aware there is no deterrent. The gardai cannot come out to every incident we have, so we just try to recover the goods.

"There are no consequence at all for the young people involved or their parents. Sometimes they do it for a dare.

"However, we did have an incident at one of our shops last week, several youths were caught and the Gardai said they would be issuing Anti-Social Behaviour Orders."

Mr Bird said that retailers were unwilling at times to go to court because it is highly unlikely the costs of the goods will be recovered and any fines issued go to the courts.

"While it can be hard to take a shop lifter to court, it is very easy for someone accused of shop-lifting to take a case against a retailer. It isn't a level playing field," he said.

Cllr Tommy Reilly who runs Day to Day in Trim and TR's Newsagents in Navan, with his son Kieran, said crime is a constant problem.

"It is a major problem. Shoplifting is bad enough but the abuse staff have to take behind the counter for just doing their job is dreadful."

Cllr Reilly said that a member of his staff in Navan's Market Square had a bottle thrown at him last week, which hit him over the eye. This followed on from a bad assault on a staff member in the same shop earlier this year.

"It is hard to know what to do. If you have to hire security for a small shop, there will be no profit. They are targeting small shops, especially where there may be students and young people working at weekends."

"We had an incident where we have a very good girl working for us. A guy came in asking to get a get a cheque cashed and told her to ring me. She rang me, he took the phone from here and without her seeing, hung up and pretended to continue to talk to me about cashing the cheque, which she did".

Cllr Reilly said that there is a lot of shoplifting going on in all sorts of shops but in particularly in supermarkets.

"We need a great Garda presence and we need teacher sin schools to talk to students about this type of crime," he said.