FSB launches anti-crime campaign

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has launched a major new national drive to increase reporting of crime against businesses.

The 'Every Crime Every Time' campaign, being run in partnership with the Coalition Against Crime, aims to highlight the extent of crime against small businesses and the fact that it is often under-reported.

Thousands of businesses, including pubs, are being encouraged to keep a record of every crime they are a victim of and to report it to the police, after an FSB report showed that only one in eight crimes committed against small businesses is reported.

Many small business owners in the report felt that crime committed against them is low down on the list of police priorities. David Croucher-Jones, FSB home affairs chairman, hopes the campaign will force the government and police to pay attention to small businesses.

"Every Crime Every Time is an effort to make the voices of small business owners heard about the crime they are victims of, and to get police forces and the Government to listen," he said.

"Crime against business is often thought to be victimless. It's not. The victims are the communities that small businesses sustain and small business owners themselves are facing a climate of constant intimidation and violence."