BUSINESS HELPDESK HELP DESK LOSS PREVENTION


Losses from merchants’ yards often rise as warmer weather returns. Paul Winstanley, BMF Security and Loss Prevention Trainer & Consultant, has advice on deterring criminals.


WITH SPRING FAST approaching, many people will be fast- forwarding plans to improve or extend their gardens and their homes. While most will find a legitimate tradesperson to undertake the work, some will be taken in by shadier characters offering a cut price deal.


Sadly, our garden plants are not the only thing to be blossoming. The lead up to the Easter home improvement season is a prime time for criminals to target home improvers with cut price building and plumbing materials, which they have usually stolen from a merchants’ yard.


As a rule of thumb, as the weather warms up, the number of yard and warehouse break- ins and opportunistic thefts will increase. There are, however, simple precautions that merchants can take to protect their stock. During trading hours do not leave your warehouse shutter doors in the up position when not in use. Leaving them open gives opportunistic criminals a chance to scope out the layout of the warehouse in preparation for a break-in, probably that evening. When closing, consider


blocking your roller shutters from the inside with heavy materials or machinery to reduce the risk of a successful ram-raid.


Opportunistic thefts are a common problem, with criminals gaining entry during lunch hours when the warehouse shutter doors are left open to allow cool air to circulate resulting in the theft of tens of thousands of pounds of stock within minutes. Gaining access in this way also allows criminals to tamper with your intruder alarm system making warehouse shutter door alarm contacts or fire door alarm


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“ Opportunistic thefts are a common problem, with criminals gaining entry during lunch hours when the warehouse shutter doors are left open to allow cool air to circulate resulting in the theft of tens of thousands of pounds of stock within minutes.”


contacts inoperable. Come the evening the intruder alarm does not set and a key-holder wanting to leave promptly may isolate the area on the alarm pad, inadvertently giving the criminal an opportunity to break-in undetected.


Daily checks to ensure intruder detection, PIRs (passive infra-red sensors), contacts, beams etc


have not been tampered with are vital. Why not conduct a security inspection at the same time as your daily Health & Safety inspection? And make sure warehouse colleagues understand the importance of not covering cameras and PIRs – this is such a common error I would be surprised if has not occurred at one of your premises.


With more stock being held in the warehouse at this time of year, don’t make it easy for criminals. Store high value reserve stock at high level, with a minimum of operational stock at ground level. Also, can you block in high value stock with delivery vehicles if you park them in your warehouse overnight? This could minimise your loss if you do suffer a break-in as criminals will want to gain entry and get away with your goods as quickly as possible. Delaying them is key to reducing the likelihood of a major theft. Finally, with the increase in fuel prices expect your vehicles to be targeted overnight by criminals looking to syphon off your fuel. Consider parking vehicles next


to each other “tank-to-tank”, making it more difficult to gain access to the fuel.


It is increasingly common to have locking fuel caps and anti- syphon caps on all vehicles, but these precautions can result in damage to the fuel tank as the criminals bypass the security features. So besides losing the cost of the fuel, you incur the additional costs of the repair and having the vehicle off the road while that work is carried out. Perhaps the cheaper option is to keep fuel in the tank to a minimum by not filling the vehicle at the end of the day and leaving the fuel cap unlocked. BMJ


The BMF offers training on reducing stock loss and shrinkage, contact becky. stokes@bmf.org.uk for more details. The BMF also issues Security Alert emails alerting members to fraud and criminal activity experienced by others, to help them take preventative action.


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2022


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