Speaking to letsrecycle.com on Tuesday, London-based Clothes Aid, said that the Crown Prosecution Service had published new guidelines to help police forces tackle textiles crime. The development followed one of the first prosecutions for textile crime in October, when a man was found with 8 tonnes of stolen material.
” Some of our collectors are despairing and already diversifying their business to supplement their income, and we are looking to recruit more motorbike security patrols “
– Michael Lomotey, Clothes Aid
But despite the new police guidelines, the problem of textile theft has increased further, and threatening to put legitimate textile collectors out of business.
Clothes Aid, which collects on behalf of charities including Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, reported a “shocking” rise in textile theft last year (see Letsrecycle.com story).
This year it has been losing even more textiles, as much as 60-65 tonnes of material a week.
Michael Lomotey, head of collection protection at Clothes Aid, said: “The guidelines mean that police can't argue with the fact that textile theft is a crime. The prosecution is also a good precedent, put the problem is still challenging. We have had about 61 arrests and only one successful prosecution, which is still worrying.”
Cost
Mr Lomotey revealed that the thefts were costing his group an estimated 250,000-per-year in donations, while the Association of Charity Shops could have been hit by as much as 2.5 million last year.
Mr Lomotey said: “It's becoming prolific. Some of our collectors are despairing and already diversifying their business to supplement their income, and we are looking to recruit more motorbike security patrols to monitor collections. Public response is also dropping as people are increasingly worried about bogus leaflets.”
He warned: “If it goes on for six months at the rate it is now it is not sustainable and parts of our business will have to close down.”
Resources
Mr Lomotey claimed that the problem was increasing due to police prioritising other crimes.
He said: “The problems we have is that the police won't put money into it and are claiming the resources issue. In one instance, 10 arrests were made last month in Essex and six vehicles were seized, including an articulated lorry, that were all found to contain stolen textiles. But the next day Havering police had to release them without charge because they did not have the man power to process them.”
“This is failing charities and legitimate businesses,” he added.
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Effort
Clothes Aid's head of collection protection suggested that the police should make a concerted effort to tackle textile crime in a six weeks offensive they could stop the “systematic destruction of businesses.”
He added that a private members debate was scheduled for Westminster today (Weds) in which questions would be asked over why there are no police resources to combat textile crime.
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