Retailers face fewer armed robberies

Johannesburg - According to the Consumer Goods Council (CGC), the number of armed robbery incidents aimed at its retailer members have decreased substantially.

In a statement on Wednesday, the CGC said armed robberies were now limited to an average 14 per month since November last year,
when the average number of robberies per month was 25.

The number of armed robbery incidents reported by members decreased by 44% in the month of April to 14 from 25 in the same month last year, the CGC added.

"The financial losses suffered relating to these robberies in April amounted to R391 993, a significant decrease of 89% when compared to the R3.53m in April of 2009," the CGC said.

According to Michael Broughton, director of the CGC's Crime Prevention Programme, there was a lot of publicity given to armed robberies last August with the notion that retail crime statistics were on an upward trend.

"Our view at the time was that it was a spike rather than anupward trend, and this has been borne out by the year end statistics."

In spite of the rise in crime during June, July and August retail crime statistics had remained steady since December and were
continuing to decrease gradually.

When comparing the months March and April 2010, there were nine robberies in March that took place at shopping centres with a financial loss of R897 744 and 10 in April with a loss of only R317 416.

Robberies which were targeted at stand alone shops in March were seven with a financial loss of R138 638 and only four in April with
a loss of R74 532.

"We have focused on a range of measures to make our members' stores less attractive to robbers.

"This has paid dividends in that not only have the number of incidents decreased, but the average financial loss per incident has dropped dramatically - in some instances five or six robbers got away with less than R1 000," Broughton said.

However, burglary incidents reported increased during the month of April.

"Burglary incidents reported by CGC members increased to 37 in April 2010 from 27 the same month last year."

Financially this resulted in losses amounting to R1.9m from R1.1m last year, an average of R50 954 loss per burglary.

"Crime prevention is everyone's responsibility and our members have recognised this, and have come together to combat the scourge," Broughton said.

 - Sapa