Crime 'costs each business £13,500 a year'

Crime costs each small business an £13,500 a year, a new survey has found.

In the study, conducted for its report 'Putting the economy back on track: Crimes against business', the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that 64% of businesses had been the victims of crime in the past year. It says that this represents 20% of all recorded UK crime.

The types of crime most frequently reported by FSB members were vandalism (26.6%), burglary (24.7%), vehicle damage (22.1%) and vehicle theft (15.2%).

The report said that just 45% of firms that had been the victim of a crime reported the incident to police, with only vandalism and burglary consistently being reported.

The retail and shop sector was found to experience the highest levels of theft, vandalism, threatening behaviour and graffiti. It was also the sector most likely to report crime.

Many respondents said that faster police response, tougher sentencing and increased levels of CCTV were the most effective methods of tackling crime.

"What we need to see is the local police directly engaging with the business community to encourage people to report crimes," said John Walker, FSB national policy chairman.

"Police authorities should also set local targets and strategies to deal with these problems on a local level," he added.