ALMOST HALF of small businesses have been victims of crime in the past two years, forcing a sharp increase in the number of companies turning to CCTV and other security measures to protect themselves, according to the Small Firms Association (SFA).
The lobby group’s national business crime survey for 2010 suggests that small companies are collectively spending billions on security to defend their businesses from what the SFA says is a growing incidence of crime.
SFA director Avine McNally yesterday criticised what she said was a low rate of convictions compared to the UK at a time when businesses were “under constant siege from planned, professional criminality”.
Two-thirds of the 171 SFA member firms surveyed said they had been victims of crime on two or more occasions. The average cost per incident was almost €3,000, with costs of each incident ranging from €50 to €50,000.
The SFA estimates that capital expenditure on crime protection by small firms amounts to €2.04 billion, up 24 per cent on the previous survey. Companies spend an average of €9,277 on capital expenditure for security each year.
The average cost of maintaining the security equipment they install is €1,231 for each company, or an annual total of €270 million.
Almost one in five of the business managers polled said they had experienced crimes such as theft or credit card fraud while travelling on business.
Theft of stock was the single most common crime, with 18 per cent of respondents saying they had been victims of this over the past two years. Some 14 per cent of companies said they had suffered criminal damage, while 13 per cent had experienced cash theft.
“Small business is spending billions of euros on security provision, and yet the incidence, extent, scope and costs associated with crime are increasing,” Ms McNally said.
“This alone reflects societal changes which are taking place and why it is so important that crime, its prevention and the manner in which we deal with convicted criminals must change.”
Retailers were especially vulnerable to crime but could “ill afford” to spend large sums on security, Ms McNally added.
Despite this, the survey suggests that firms are putting more complex security systems in place. The use of CCTV has increased 38 per cent, while the number of electronic access control systems has risen almost 30 per cent.
Some 3 per cent of companies said they had suffered internal fraud, while 1 per cent had been the victims of an armed robbery.
The cost of online scams such as identity fraud, phishing and data theft, ranged up to €20,000 for each incident, with the average cost of each incident reaching €5,663, up €3,500 on the 2007 survey.
