Accordingly to a recent survey carried out by the Small Firms Association (SFA), 38% of businesses have been victims of crime in the past 2 years and 48% of firms have experienced an increase in crime. The average cost per incident is €8,728 and the survey showed that costs range from €80 to €200,000 and are rapidly increasing. More firms are putting more complex security in place and the amount of CCTV and security systems used has increased significantly. The major types of crime are; Over the last number of years small firms have become victims of a range of scams, identity fraud, phishing and data theft.  The survey showed that nearly 11% of firms had experienced online fraud in regard to their company services/products. The SFA are calling for the following approach to reduce cost and the incidence of business crime;

-  Government and Gardaí must address concerns of small businesses – low conviction rates are a concern;

-  Rather than calling for new laws to be enacted those laws currently on the statute book must be applied to all forms of crime and

-  A strategy for the penal system should be formulated so that it provides an effective deterrent and at the same time aims to rehabilitate offenders and prevent reoffending.

For more information see http://www.sfa.ie/Sectors/SFA/SFA.nsf/vPages/News~sfa-9th-national-business-crime-survey-13-05-2014?OpenDocument

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