File image. Photo: 123rf
The head of a specialised police unit targeting shoplifters says meat stolen in bulk from supermarkets is being exported offshore.
Retail Crime Unit manager Matt Tierney said his team had dealt with nearly 200 incidents that mainly involved shoplifters across New Zealand, since the body was established at the end of 2021.
Tierney told Checkpoint the level of offending included items being stolen at scale, something supermarket giant Foodstuffs highlighted in its industry survey today.
A Foodstuffs survey reported a 40 percent increase in retail crime in its North Island stores compared to the same period last year, and a 36 percent increase in daily incidents of assault, aggression, threatening behaviour and abuse.
The 320 grocers are members of the co-operative, which covers New World, Pak'n Save and Four Square stores.
It comes as the cost-of-living crisis and aggressive monetary policy by the central bank designed to tackle inflation hits people hard, particularly those already experiencing high levels of social and economic deprivation.
However, Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin told RNZ this morning he did not believe this was a factor in the increase, because items like nappies were not being taken.
The body pointed to professional thieves increasingly stealing brand-specific goods to order.
Tierney said his team were aware of the issue and active measures to combat the increase were being rolled out.
"They are taking entire trolley loads of meat, or it can be Panadol, another really common one, or in some cases, even chocolates," he said.
"So, we're working on that with the sector to try and put in prevention activities and initiatives to actually stop the removal of an entire trolley from the premise, which will make it impossible for them to steal the sort of quantities that they steal."
Police were looking at a braking system on the trolleys, as well as other initiatives to minimise the opportunities thieves' had.
"I don't really want to go into exact specific details," Tierney said.
"But there is training of staff as a big one - how to approach and deal with the situation, recognising offenders, or certainly recognising people that have previously been in store and dealing with them before it sort of gets to the level of a theft. It might be that that person has previously been trespassed, and then they can be spoken at the front door of the premise."
Items like Panadol were targeted because these were easily moved on through various sources and were high value.
There was evidence that two offenders who had been stealing meat were exporting it offshore, he added.
"As to the exact routes of offloading, it would be varied across individual offenders and locations within the country," he said.
Across the country there have been nearly 1500 charges laid against 197 offenders dealt with by the unit since being established.
The unit was "working smart", using tech to help identify offenders and prevent crime.
"We're making sure that we target those people and really hold them to account and, in conjunction with the the local district staff as well, make sure that they're aware of the local offenders and that these people can't continue to commit offences or anything like that, that they dealt with quickly, and given the appropriate restrictions to prevent them from committing offences again," Tierney said.