A farm shop warning has been issued as a 'weird' and 'horrible' trend sweeps the country. A rise in shoplifting and theft has targeted an astonishing nine in 10 retailers in rural areas.
According to research by commercial insurer NFU Mutual, 90 per cent of retailers based in rural locations have been victims of crime in the past 12 months. The financial cost of crime for each affected retailer was on average £83,000 during the past year. One in 20 victims said crime had cost them more than half a million pounds.
John Harris, a farmer and owner of Broadditch farm shop near Gravesend in Kent, is among those who have been affected. 'It felt personal, like a gut punch. It was a weird, horrible feeling,' he told the Guardian newspaper. 'We normally don't leave money in the shop, but because of the way the weekend fell, there was more in the safe than normal. We have beefed up security with locks and an alarm. There has always been petty theft on farmyards of things like diesel and quad bikes, but now it seems like things are being targeted and stolen to order.'
Zoe Knight, the head of commercial at NFU Mutual, said in a statement: 'We know first-hand the pain and disruption criminals cause our rural communities and retailers with these callous acts. Farm shops are often family-run operations and embedded into the local communities. They have sadly been targeted in the past – and continue to be so – due to their remote locations, so it is vital that owners take all necessary and appropriate preventative steps to try to deter thieves.'
