Editor’s Note: The report prepared for Retail Ireland, “Tackling the Black Market and Retail Crime,” is attached here.
From: Finfacts.ie
Retail Ireland, an IBEC group, today published a report ‘Tackling the Black Market and Retail Crime’, which says the Exchequer is losing €861m annually because of illegal black market activity and retail theft (see breakdown below).
Retail Ireland said the Revenue and Gardaí should be given more resources to tackle the problem and called for rewards of up to €10,000 for whistle blowers. It called for benefits to be reduced for persons and businesses found guilty, and said consumers need to be made aware that buying smuggled and counterfeit goods was putting money straight into the hands of dangerous and ruthless criminal gangs.
Key facts in the report include (see Report [pdf] for more details):
- At least 12% of all diesel sold in Ireland is illegal. Since 2010, 19 oil laundries have been detected and closed, and 690,000 litres of oil seized;
- Almost 25% of the Irish cigarette market is sourced from the black market. In 2011, 109m illegal cigarettes, with a value of €45.9m, were seized;
- Attempts to import counterfeit goods increased by a quarter to 1277 from 2009 to 2010; 66853 counterfeit articles were intercepted in 2010;
- Industry estimates that 770000 individuals in Ireland have down-loaded music/films illegally, costing the industry and Exchequer millions;
- Ireland ranks 11th out of 22 countries in Europe for shop-lifting, with employee theft accounting for one-third, the highest rate in Europe.
The report says current levels of convictions are not a deterrent to even casual criminals. “We should adopt a zero tolerance approach to all criminal activity that steals from the taxpayer and Ireland’s retailers.”
True and without minimising the impact of criminal activity, issues such as tax evasion also deserve serious attention.
