Retail crime charges on the rise as efforts focus on repeat offenders

There's a view retail crime's reduced as penalties have strengthened. 

The Ministry of Justice's latest data shows finalised charges for theft from a retail premises were more than 21,000 for the year to June, more than tripling since 2022. 

Retail NZ believes offending's dropped as much as 30% since last year. 

Chief Executive Carolyn Young told Andrew Dickens retailers are reporting more crime, which means they're able to capture more offenders that account for a number of these issues. 

She says repeat offending is high, with around 60% of offences carried out by 10% of the offenders. 

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