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'FOILED'
Police praises Retail Loss Prevention Fashion Forum
after the conviction of 'foil bag' gang ring leader
Police have praised the collaborative approach of the Retail Loss Prevention Fashion Forum after an intense information sharing operation resulted in a sting operation and conviction of the ringleader of a national criminal gang that has preyed on stores across the UK.
Michael Andrew Patrick Duffy was sentenced to 18-months in prison with six months to run consecutively after pleading guilty to theft of thousands of pounds worth of merchandise from fashion stores across the UK as part of the so-called 'Argos Bag' Gang, named because their modus operandi involved a foil-lined Argos shopping bag to interfere with sophisticated EAS systems.
Another female member of the same gang has also pleaded guilty to the same offences at Derby Crown Court and sentencing has been adjourned.
Michael Duffy was caught in a sting operation in Chesterfield, Derbyshire last year after members of the Fashion Forum, collaborated with each other and local police with the aim of thwarting the gang's lucrative crime spree that had stretched right across the UK.
The Forum, comprising the heads of loss prevention for most of the High Street's fashion stores, had agreed to share knowledge and scene of crimes data of raids on their stores to identify members of the gang and compare modus operandi (MO) as each heist resulted in an average of £1500 worth of stolen property.
"The raids had been carried out in towns all over the UK, from Watford in the south to Nottingham and Sheffield in the north and it was costing some of our businesses a lot of money," said Richard Lawrance, chairman of the Retail Loss Prevention Fashion Forum and head of audit and loss at Monsoon.
"We decided to form a special sub group looking at this kind of organised crime and shared data on various known gang activities including their distinct MOs. We were careful to stay within the Data Protection regulations as we were lawfully sharing information in the course of preventing an offence. Working with the police we were able to thwart one of the ring leaders and corner him as he tried to make his escape."
Michael Duffy was found hiding behind a clothes display in another fashion store when police combed the shopping centre.
James Allen of Derbyshire Police, said: "This is a good example of collaboration and support from the retail sector. We want to work more closely with the business community on this kind of exercise as it resulted in the arrest and serious conviction of a serious serial offender who asked for other offences to be taken into consideration (TICs)."
Facilitated by The ORIS Group, the UK's leading loss prevention experts, members of the Fashion Forum include: Adidas, GAP, House of Fraser, Jaeger, Marks and Spencer, Matalan, Monsoon, Next, New Look, Peacocks and Polo Ralph Lauren who meet quarterly to share information and best practice and more regularly with various sub-groups such as the organised crime forum. Other successes to date have included lobbying meetings with the Home Office and eBay which has agreed to a more collaborative approach to working with retailers.
A DAY TO REMEMBER
Retail Fraud Awareness Day - June 30, 2009
Retailers are lining up to support Retail Fraud Awareness Day on 30 June and help cut the £22,000 per second losses on the UK's High Street.
Sponsor, The ORIS Group, has written to hundreds of retailers with the simple message - get involved.
This means visiting the official website www.fraudawareness.co.uk to register support and to download the store briefing notes, a generic guide of how stores can help themselves to prevent shoplifters and internal fraudsters from helping themselves.
"This is not about attacking the police and the courts about their mediocre response to business crime, although that is still an issue. It is more about collaborating to make fraud everyone’s business, not just the loss prevention and profit protection teams," said Laurence King, chairman of The ORIS Group, and one of the UK's leading experts on retail crime.
"Retail Fraud is a major contributor to the £4.1 billion worth of annual losses from the UK High Street* - a staggering £22,000 per second. Shoplifters, criminal gangs and disloyal staff are behind these horrendous figures that further compound the existing recessionary pressures on the High Street," says King.
He adds: "The loss prevention and profit protection community are desperately trying to get fraud and shrinkage onto the Board agenda, but they cannot do it alone. It requires a collaborative approach across the industry and within retail organisations - an approach that moves away from denial and towards a cultural acceptance that ‘shrink can and must be shrunk."
The Retail Fraud Awareness Day is a shop window of opportunity for retailers to arrest the haemorrhaging losses as well as the internal fraudsters and shoplifters causing them. Retail Fraud Awareness Day is aimed at becoming an annual staging post to raise the profile of this multi-billion pound issue and how to deal with it for the benefit of the silent majority - the retail businesses themselves, their honest staff and customers and their shareholders.
Although scheduled to be an annual event, organisers want to make every day a fraud awareness day so that all staff - not just the Loss Prevention team and Finance Director - are in step with measuring and managing the problem.
Although many larger stores have sophisticated loss prevention measures in place, a generic strategy and a team briefing document has been developed that takes this message into the heart of any organisation where shrink measurement and management are not yet on the board agenda.
It is because Retail Fraud Awareness Day seeks to show stores of all shapes and sizes how to help themselves in practical terms rather than simply put the issue at the feet of the Criminal Justice System for lenient sentencing for example, that retailers are supporting the initiative. If the authorities recognise that retailers are putting their own houses in order by tightening procedures and processes to cut losses, it is thought that they are more likely to receive a more sympathetic hearing from the police and courts when prosecutions are brought before them.
Brian Lenehan, Company Security Manager, Harvey Nichols, says: "As Head of Security for Harvey Nichols I support any initiative that will assist to both increase awareness and reduce instances of Retail Fraud which unfortunately these days is all to common."
He is joined by his colleague Julie Phillpott, Senior Business Analyst for Retail and Hospitality, who adds: "I fully support any ideas or processes that will assist in the reduction of shrink and fraud across our company, be it through more visibility of the actual issues, improving our current procedures or the introduction of new technology."
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