From €100 worth of chicken fillet rolls being stolen from delis each week, to thousands of euro of damage being done by shoplifters, retailers have revealed the devastating impact crime is having on their businesses.
CSNA Member Shane Gleeson (59), who owns five Spar shops in Limerick, said theft and criminal damage offences have got “far worse” in recent years.
Last September, a man smashed through the front door of his store in Castletroy and robbed cigarettes and vape products worth nearly €7,000. A few weeks later, the same man again broke into the shop and took more fags and vapes, estimated by gardaí to be worth around €1,600.
Both incidents were captured on CCTV and the perpetrator, Dermot Boland of Maple Court, Kennedy Park, Co Limerick, was sentenced to three years in jail in March. Mr Gleeson said that repairing the damage to the premises cost him close to €40,000 after windows, doors and electrics were broken. In the last year, he has invested €65,000 in hi-tech CCTV due to the level of shoplifting occurring.
“Last Wednesday, a woman came into one of the shops in the city centre with a massive bag, filled it with about 20 items and tried to walk out the door,” he said. “My son tried to stop her and she started roaring and screaming. The guards were called, she assaulted one of them and they had to handcuff her and take her away. About two hours later, she was back trying to do the same thing. We’re getting repeat offenders on a daily basis.”
Mr Gleeson estimates that theft is costing his businesses up to €80,000 each year. “The latest racket”, he says, is people coming into the shop, ordering food at the deli, eating it in the store and then walking out without paying. “We now have signs up everywhere saying you must pay for your food before it is consumed,” he said.
CSNA Executive Member Brian Kelly owns a service station in Newcastle, Co Dublin and has also experienced customers stealing food from the deli. He estimates that up to €100 worth of chicken fillet rolls is taken every week. “We have a system where if you buy a roll, the label is traced and it will come up on the till if the item was unsold, so we can pinpoint the person who has taken it and how much hasn’t been paid for,” he said.
“We’ve noticed that people are coming in and paying for a couple of items such as a bottle of Coke and a bar, but putting the deli food in their pocket.” Mr Kelly said the business has been in his family for 40 years and he has noticed a “huge increase in shoplifting”. “It can be disheartening. I’ve gone to court three or four times for shoplifting and only one was prosecuted, so I’m not sure how serious the legal system takes it.”
Another shop owner who runs a Spar on MacCurtain Street in Cork Executive Member Willie O’Brien has been assaulted while attempting to stop people robbing from his store. “I believe we have a legal system in this country, but we don’t have a justice system,” he said. He described the system as “not fit for purpose” due to the level of repeat offenders. “A justice system believes in restitution, not in retribution,” he said. “I’d prefer if the State spent the millions of euro in legal aid on rehabilitating people, rather than paying solicitors and barristers. “It’s a business for legal eagles, whereas the person who is robbed gets nothing for the upset to their life.”