As concern grows for garden centre theft and its impact on the sector, the Horticultural Trades Association brought together retail crime experts for a member webinar yesterday to discuss ways to combat the estimated £16 million worth of garden centre turnover lost to retail crime.

The webinar featured presentations from Patrick Holdaway - Superintendent of the National Business Crime Centre, Matthew Barber - Police & Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley, Marcus Cator - Chief Inspector of the Strategic Area Policing Hub, Nathan Wilson - Head of Group Security and Total Loss at Blue Diamond, and Gareth Lewis - Loss Prevention & Security Services Manager at Southern Co-Op and Chairman of UK Partners Against Crime (UKPAC).

The experts offered best practice advice for crime prevention and the importance of reporting, as well as providing a platform for HTA members to raise their concerns and ask the panellists questions. Topics covered CCTV, product protection, banning people, travelling offenders and the importance of data sharing/ reporting.

In the HTA’s previous budget submission, it called on the government to address the issue, asking for “extra provision for police responses, particularly in rural locations, to incidents of theft must be made available at your earliest opportunity, as well as action on the severity of the crime of assault on retail staff.”

Gareth Lewis, Loss Prevention & Security Services Manager at Southern Co-Op and Chairman of UK Partners Against Crime, said: “I've been in retail for just over 40 years and have dealt with business crime for just over 20 years, and I've never seen anything like the level of crime that we're having to deal with right now during all that length of service within retail. And I'm sure that's the same for you in garden centres and as members of the HTA.”

Matthew Barber, Police & Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, said: “Sharing information is so important because it's not just about sharing it with police. It's about sharing that knowledge with other retailers in the local area because those offenders who are hitting your businesses will also be hitting other businesses. It might be that bit of information, or that bit of CCTV you have may well actually lead to a prosecution elsewhere. Any information you can share is hugely valuable.”

David Lydiat, Public Affairs and Policy Manager, HTA said: “The HTA is committed to supporting our members in dealing with retail crime. We organised this meeting as we are determined to find preventative solutions by working closely with police representatives and local forces. Unfortunately, this damaging issue is being experienced far too frequently among garden centre retailers. While making the government and other police stakeholders aware, we are still calling for improved responses to theft.”