New research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has found small firms are not reporting crimes against their business because they do not think it would lead to a successful prosecution (38%).
The FSB findings call into question the accuracy of the current crime statistics and suggest low levels of trust in the ability of the police to deal with business crime among small businesses.
Nearly a quarter of smaller business owners (24%) do not report any crimes committed against their business. When asked why, most said they felt reporting it would not achieve anything positive (46%).
This figure has not changed in six years, highlighting an ongoing lack of confidence in the authority’s ability to address business crime over that period, despite the launch of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) in 2012.
These worrying findings come as candidates seeking to become PCCs set out their stall to voters. FSB has produced a manifesto (.pdf) that urges candidates to put business crime at the heart of their plans to ensure this issue is finally addressed.
Business crime acts as a barrier to growth for the UK’s 5.4 million small businesses and in the worst cases, puts entrepreneurs out of business.
Mike Cherry, national chairman at FSB, said: “While the new definition of ‘business crime’ adopted by the police in April 2015 is a real step forward, there is still a long way to go in understanding and addressing the true extent of the problem.
"Crime affects all businesses, but it impacts smaller firms the hardest as they cannot absorb the unexpected costs. The fact that businesses are not reporting crimes shows a real breakdown in trust and confidence in the police.”
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