Hungary second on tops list of CEE shoplifters

A new study conducted by the British Centre for Retail Research revealed that Czechs top the list of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest shoplifters.

 Published Nov. 12, the 80-page report
compared the estimated value of stolen goods in proportion to total
retail sales in 22 European countries based on data collected from
July 2007 to June 2008. In Central Europe, the Czech Republic
narrowly beat out Hungary and Poland with nearly $480 million in
stolen merchandise, accounting for 1.38 percent of total retail sales
last year.

While authorities point out this figure
is a 0.3 percent decline from the previous year, the figures still
exceed those of West European countries, where stolen merchandise
accounts for 1.26 percent of total retail sales on average.

According to a report published by
Checkpoint Systems, UK is officially the worst nation in Europe for
shoplifting and third in the world behind global powerhouses the USA
and Japan. Despite this declining slightly in the last year to
represent 1.3% of sales turnover, the UK still boasts higher than
European-average shrinkage levels (1.26%).