Crime against business on the rise
Cash Connect joint CEO Richard Phillips says there is a continuous spiral upwards in business crime.
|||Johannesburg - On the back of Friday’s release of national crime statistics for the most recent financial year, Cash Connect joint CEO Richard Phillips says there is a continuous spiral upwards in business crime.
“I don’t think anyone expected this year’s crime statistics to be an improvement over the last two years; in fact, they show a continuous upward spiral,” says Phillips.
The company, which provides services to retailers to secure cash takings, notes robberies targeting businesses in the 2015/16 year gained 2.8 percent.
Based on the South African Police Service’s statistics, it says attacks went from 19 170 in the previous year to 19 698. Most of the cases were reported in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
Phillips says cash in the retail sector continues to be a primary target of organised crime.
Read also: Cash bombings on the up
The company notes that the Consumer Goods Council of SA recorded more than 1 000 armed robbery attacks against its retail members between March 2015 and February 2016, and over 400 burglaries in the same period, which is an increase of 62 percent.
Although bank robberies decreased by 64 percent, with only 6 cases reported across the country, cash in transit robberies grew 15 percent.
“Organised crime remains very active in the cash economy. We believe that there has been at least a 35 percent increase in attacks against retail cash deposit machines and a marked increase in the use of explosives,” adds Phillips.
What these latest statistics don’t reveal is the fact that ATM and cash safe bombings have also increased drastically over the past few years. “Light-weight cash deposit machines containing large amounts of cash are the new focus. Once again, the use of plastic explosives to gain access to the cash in these devices has become a popular tactic,” says Phillips.
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