SHOP THIEVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 100, 29 April 1937, Page 9

SHOP THIEVES.

HOW GOODS VANISH.

HUGE LOSSES IN SYDNEY.! ARE PENALTIES TOO LOW ?' (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 24. Said a city store official to a "Sun" reporter the other day: "Shoplifting in 'Sydney is an organised racket costing the busines® community thousands of pounds a year." He spoke feelingly, because the firm to which he belongs loses £15,000 a year regularly in stolen goods and spends half as much again in preventive measures.

Every now and then the accumulation of such losses impels shopkeepers to make a concerted movement in their own defence, and last week a deputation waited on the Minister of Justice with a request that the penalties imposed for shoplifting should be increased and should be more stringently enforced. The maximum at present is only a £50 fine, with the alternative of 12 months' imprisonment when the value of the goods is below £10, while above that amount the magistrate must commit for trial, and a far heavier penalty may be imposed. Many shoplifters get | off very lightly, especially if, as frequently happens, they are women.

Mr. Charles Lloyd Jones, chairman of directors of David Jones, said recently that "the punishment meted out by the Courts is such that it pays the shoplifter to take the risk. Instead of the fines acting as a deterrent they invite | others to go and do likewise." Mr. Lloyd Jones instanced the case of two girls who were caught recently after ; stealing £75 worth of goods and were | fined only £5 each. He maintains that the! professional shoplifter should be re- i garded in the same light as the professional burglar and should be punished accordingly. That it is high time for something to be done to stem this tide of systematic dishonesty is evident from the.

figures that the police authorities have published bearing on such cases. Ia 1935 no fewer than 570 persons were convicted of shoplifting in Sydney, and in 1936 the number increased to 650, yet it is agreed by directors of David Jones, Snows, and Farmers, three of our largest department stores, that in all probability not more than 5 per cent of the thieves are ever arrested. These experienced men have estimated that the total losses through this sort of theft from our shops must average at least £100,000 a year. Of course, this [ means that robberies of this kind are engineered deliberately on a large scale.

Not long ago 750 frocks, stolen by a gang of shoplifters, were recovered at one place, and this, of course, means that the work of shoplifting is carried on by organised gangs provided with all modern facilities for committing such depredations and disposing of the goods. Four Distinct Classes. Many reading these ominous records may well ask what sort of people indulge in such infamous activities. Au attempt was made to answer this question the other day by the chief storeinspector at Farmer's, who, by the way, was once superintendent of our Criminal Information Bureau. Shoplifters, he savs, fall into four distinct classes:

1. The flapper, 16 to 18 years of age, who steals because she wants to dress more expensively than she can afford.

2. The middle-aged woman, often the wife of a well-to-do professional or business man, who is prompted simply by greed, though she often has large sums of money in her purse.

3. The young hoodlum, 18 to 25 years of age, who has nothing to do for a living, and wants to get something for nothing.

4. The seasoned criminal, who works alone or in a gang, and steals everything from sewing machines to fur coats to sell to receivers.

It is the experience of Mr. Norman Pope, who is chairman of directors of Farmer's, that "there are large numbers of shoplifters who do nothing else, including many able bodied men and youths. They work in gangs, carrying out their plans with a deliberate per si*, tence that sooner or later reaches it# mark." Mr. Pope has known the sauv* man to come back to the same storw twice or even three times in ' ,4a