Bold Calls For Government To Tackle Retail Crime Scourge

The Motor Trade Association (MTA) is calling on Government to take a bold, innovative approach to protecting service station workers and other retail businesses from crime.

MTA has released its Position Statement on Service Station Crime and a 10-point action plan to address an issue that threatens thousands of hard-working Kiwis and costs millions of dollars.

MTA Chief Executive Lee Marshall says crime is a daily reality or risk for service stations.

“Violent smash-and-grab robberies leave vulnerable workers injured and traumatised. Drive-off fuel theft hits the bottom line of independent service stations hard,” Mr Marshall says.

“And communities are victims too – because service stations help Kiwis and families travel every day. Crime against service stations is crime against the community.”

Police data shows that for the first five months of this year alone, there have been 60 aggravated robberies and almost 12,000 reports of theft from service stations.

Mr Marshall says no one wants service stations to turn into fortresses of reinforced glass and bars to deter criminals.

“That’s not the Kiwi way, and it’s not what service stations want either. We know this Government takes crime particularly seriously – that’s why we have developed our plan to work with them on keeping people safe and secure, and to make a real difference.”

MTA has developed the calls based on the experience and feedback from its 920 service station members and research of the problem overseas, and include:

• Extend the Police Community Beat Patrols initiative to include ‘Hot Spot’ motorised night-time patrolling of service stations, particularly in high-risk areas, as carried out effectively in Auckland in March 2024
• Disqualify offenders for a discount for remorse at sentencing if they’ve shared video taken while committing retail crime and shared it on social media
• Government investigating the viability of enabling retailers to claim a rebate on relevant taxes on stolen fuel
• Require insurance companies to maintain premiums and excesses at reasonable and not punitive levels, and do not cancel cover because of crime
• Develop a new over-arching and comprehensive Retail Crime Action Strategy with New Zealand Police and other applicable agencies, and call on police to change their approach to service station crime

Lee Marshall says many of the action points would benefit the entire retail sector.

“Crime is an extremely serious threat for many businesses. We are ready to work with all parties to support and protect Kiwis from crime.

“The creation of the Ministerial Advisory Group on retail crime is a positive step. A whole of industry approach is needed to tackle this crisis head-on. We are ready to work with all parties to keep Kiwis safe – everyone deserves that.”

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