STICKY fingers are costing Newcastle retailers' bottom line with rates of shoplifting more than double the state average in the past 12 months to June.
New Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) data reveals shoplifting is up 49.9 per cent in the two years to June 2024 across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
Business Hunter chief executive Bob Hawes said shoplifting was an issue for local retailers along with other challenges like rising costs, falling margins and difficulties hiring staff.
"It [shoplifting] has a big impact particularly where margins are tight," Mr Hawes said.
"Businesses will often have to sell a considerable amount of more product to recover the margin on very limited amounts of stolen goods.
"This impacts their viability, the ability to hire staff and ultimately to continue to trade."
In the 12 months to June 2024, police recorded 2266 shoplifting offences across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, 2265 other stealing offences and 2812 thefts from cars.
Mr Hawes said part of the difficult for shop owners was that it could be hard and expensive to invest in technology to curb stealing.
"Otherwise businesses rely on staff to be vigilant and this is not always effective particularly in retail businesses that get busy," he said.
Mr Hawes advised retailers to check with NSW Police as to their powers when it came to catching a shoplifter red-handed, but suggested making conditions of entry to the store clear.
"You often see this on signage as you enter a story to reserve the right to check bags, etc," he said.
In Newcastle alone, BOCSAR statistics show there were 1250 shoplifting offences, 1476 other stealing offences and 1981 car thefts in the 12 months to June, 2024.
Australian Retail Association (ARA) chief executive Paul Zahra said retail crime had a profound and lasting impact on retail staff and, in some cases, customers.
"It also has an immense financial impact, costing the sector around $9 billion in shrinkage alone, not counting damage to assets, absenteeism or workers' compensation claims," he said.
"We know that shoplifting continues to be a major concern to retailers, with some offenders using violence and intimidation to steal.
"Almost one in every 10 retail crimes in Australia is violent."
Mr Zahra said NSW had the second highest number of serious retail crime events after Victoria, recording about 12,700 incidents annually.
He said while ARA members had ramped up their investment in security measures, systems and training the issue needs to be "dealt with at the root".
"... which means tougher legislation and penalties to deter offenders and more resources for police to help respond in a timely and effective manner," Mr Zahra said.
BOCSAR data shows the number of young offenders being handed warnings, cautions or a youth justice conference and diverted away from the court system has dropped.
In the past two years the youth diversion rate across the state has fallen from 51.3 per cent in 2022-23 to 46.8 per cent in 2023-24.
The diversion rate for shoplifting has fallen from 69 per cent in 2022-23 to 55 per cent in 2023-24.
That means more young people went to court for shoplifting in 2023-24 compared with 2022-23.
BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said diversionary options for young people were a long-standing pillar of the state's response to adolescent offending.
"Diversion can reduce re-offending and avoid or delay the stigma and harms associated with a court appearance," she said.
Ms Fitzgerald said the severity of offences that young people were being taken to court for had recently increased.
"We're seeing more legal actions for offences which are unlikely to be diverted away from court such as robbery, car theft and break and enter; while at the same time some less serious offences, like cannabis possession, have fallen in volume," she said.
"A second factor is a fall in the rate of diversion for some high-volume offences; for instance the diversion rate for shoplifting fell from 69 per cent in 2022-23 to 55 per cent in 2023-24."
