Increase in rehab places 'may reduce retail crime'

Increasing the number of drug rehabilitation places may help reduce retail crime, an MP has said.

Addressing the Association of Convenience Stores' (ACS) crime prevention forum on Tuesday, Conservative MP Phillip Dunne said: "The evidence we have received has made it clear that shop crime is committed overwhelmingly to support drug use."

Dunne, who chairs the Conservative retail crime commission, continued: "The Conservatives are already committed to [increasing] the number of drug rehabilitation places dramatically, which will help cut shop crime."

He also said that while on-the-spot fines may be useful to deter first-time shop thieves, wider use should be made of community sentences to deal with persistent offenders.

Mr Dunne's statements come after an ACS survey of over 2,700 members recorded 188 burglaries, 88 robberies and 20 till snatches in the last quarter of 2008, with the total cost to retailers put at over £580,000.

The survey also recorded 876 incidents of verbal abuse, 90 cases of vandalism and 82 incidents of physical abuse.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: "Policy on retail crime needs to reflect the importance of local shops.

"Too often retail crime is wrongly dismissed as a victimless crime, when it has a significant impact not only on the business and its owners, but on the wider community as well."