Whisky industry sets up task force to target hijacks

The whisky industry has set up a special task force aimed at calling a halt to the number of losses caused by delivery truck hijacks each year.

For the first time, Scottish distillers are working together in a joint initiative with hauliers and police forces to tackle the problem, which costs the industry about £1m every year.

Two heists in the past two months in Glasgow have seen £500,000 worth of spirits stolen from delivery lorries. One was hijacked at traffic lights, the other was stolen from a dockside.

The distillers are concerned about increasing insurance premiums and violence against staff, so Allied Distillers, Dewars, Kyndal International (formerly Jim Beam Brands), Guinness UDV, Edrington Group, Chivas Bros and William Grants have set up the Drinks Industry Project Scotland, based at the Scottish Business Crime Centre in Stirling.

The aim is to create a private criminal intelligence agency that will gather and share information about suspected offenders and compile a database to pass on to police forces.

Allied Distillers' assurance systems manager Roy Henderson said: "We are delighted this project has taken off after three years of discussion.

"We hope this will go some way to reducing the level of criminal activity which is estimated to cost the drinks industry £1m each year."

Inspector Adrian Watson, who is organising the project, said: "As the theft of whisky is often seen as a victimless crime, and as it has been difficult to gauge the scale of the problem, we hope this initiative will lead to everyone being more open."