The Centre for Retail Research has published figures that suggest employees are responsible for 30 per cent of in-store shrinkage, despite a reduction in UK shrinkage for the third year running.
The European Retail Theft Barometer showed that UK employees are among the worst for stealing in Europe, coming second to Icelandic employees. The report suggests that Greek employees are the most honest.
However, British Retail Consortium assistant policy director of crime Nick James warned against treating staff with suspicion. 'We would certainly say retailers should never view staff as the enemy within. A vast majority of staff are entirely honest and retailers have to deal with the small clique of dishonest staff.'
The average shrinkage rate of Europe's retailers is the lowest for five years but customers are still the highest source of theft, responsible for 49.2 per cent of shrinkage.
Shrinkage is defined in the report as loss of stock caused by crime, administrative error and wastage.
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