The staff in Spar at the Walkinstown Roundabout were plagued by a gang of young boys all under the age of 12 who came into the shop and stole what they could get away with.
One of their number, an eight-year-old, distracted the staff while his friends went on a pilfering spree.
They all were all barred from the shop about three years ago. A short time later a solicitor’s letter arrived into the shop claiming defamation against the eight-year-old boy.
Shop owner Caroline Looby wanted to fight the case but it was settled by the shop’s insurers out of court for €12,000.
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“You have to be very careful what you say to kids because they know their rights. They have either criminal parents, or parents who don’t care. They laugh at us,” Ms Looby says.
In another case, in Dublin city centre, a teenager looked to staff like he was robbing a can of Coca-Cola. When gardaí arrived, the teenager produced a receipt from a different shop showing he had paid for the drink. The can cost the retailer involved €12,000 in an out-of-court defamation settlement.
Another retailer, who did not want to be named, said a defamation action around an allegedly stolen packet of chewing gum cost him thousands of euro.
The long-awaited reform of the Defamation Act which would allow qualified privilege for shopkeepers who accuse somebody of shoplifting is one of five key demands made by the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA) at the launch of their Stop Crime Against Retailers campaign in Dublin.
Minister of State Emer Higgins said there will be a new statutory definition for retailers which will allow qualified support for those who act in “good faith” in relation to the issue of shoplifting, but the details will have to be worked out further. She told retailers that the issue has been brought to the attention of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.
Retailers also want UK-style antisocial behavioural orders (Asbos) and night courts to deal with retail crime, direct access to local Garda stations, enforced standards for Garda response times and a streamlined process for the return of stolen goods.
At a packed gathering of retailers in Fallon & Byrne in Dublin, many voiced concern at the current level of criminality which they have to deal with – which has escalated since the Covid-19 pandemic – because they are perceived to be cash-rich targets.
A survey of 1,500 CSNA members found all faced some kind of crime in the previous 12 months, from shoplifting to violent robbery. Three-quarters (76 per cent) reported a financial loss, with 36 per cent saying it was more than €10,000 in a year. Two-thirds (67 per cent) were unhappy with Garda response times and half said they had been victims of employee theft.
Many retailers spoke of their personal experiences of criminality. Seamus Griffin of the Griffin Retail Group said he has been in Dublin city centre since 1989 and the situation has got “worse and worse”. Shoplifting happens five or six times a day and the offenders have no respect for the judicial system.
John Cauldwell, who owns a Spar at the top of O’Connell Street, said the state of the street was an “absolute disgrace – the time to do something is now”.
Limerick-based retailer Michael Gleeson said he is the third generation of shop owners in his family “and there won’t be a fourth”.
There was a “sense of entitlement” that shoplifters have that they can do what they please, he believed, and get away with it. He is constantly dealing with people with addiction and violence issues. “We are not running a shop any more. We are running a social services centre,” he said.
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