Annual cost of business crime now £12.6 billion

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the annual total equated to one-sixth of all crimes committed in the UK. The business group today wrote to the Government calling for more action to tackle offences against firms, including making the police record all business crime incidents.

Industry leaders said there was a "worrying" lack of confidence in the police among business people. A survey of 3,900 businesses for the BCC also found that almost two out of three had been victims of crime in the past year.

Four out of five said business crime was a problem in their local area while one in four complained of damage to their vehicles. A fifth had been hit by vandalism and graffiti and a similar proportion had been burgled. The worst crime rates were on industrial estates, shopping parades and out-of-town sites.

More than two out of three businesses said they would not bother reporting small crimes or damage to the police, complaining of a lack of confidence that the issues would be treated seriously.

The last crime survey by the BCC - carried out in 2004 - put the annual cost of crime against businesses at £10.5 billion.

'Damaging impact'

David Frost, director general of the BCC, said: "Businesses are the lifeblood of communities, and crimes against them have a damaging impact on both the economic growth and future prosperity of local areas.

"This survey has laid bare the growing cost of business crime and exposed some fundamental flaws in the way business crime is handled by the police."

He added: "Increasing numbers of businesses are losing confidence in the police's ability to address their concerns about crime.

"The absence of a national definition for business crime, from which police forces can record instances of criminal activity, is an issue which needs addressing."

Shadow home secretary David Davis commented: "The Government's preferred measure of reporting crime - the British Crime Survey - does not even count crime against business, so it is little wonder the problem is being ignored."

The full BCC report 'The Invisible Crime: A Business Crime Survey' can be viewed/downloaded (pdf) here.