Independent: James Bond-esque Security!

The recession has led to a wave of robberies and shoplifting, which costs about £2bn a year, reports James Thompson.

Anyone wandering past Watches of Switzerland, the upmarket watch retailer, on London's Oxford Street before the shop opens in the morning will notice there are no products on display in its window. After a spate of increasingly bold and often violent robberies in the West End over recent years, including last week's raid on Graff Diamonds where two criminals used guns and latex face masks, this is the one of the most basic precautions a retailer can take. However such measures rarely deter hardcore criminals, particularly during a recession, when retail crime spikes.

A British Retail Consortium (BRC) survey last month found that more than 90 per cent of retailers reported crime had risen over the last 12 months; more than four-fifths said the recession was the reason.

In fact, some store groups have felt compelled to invest in installing highly sophisticated, almost James Bond-esque security.

Aurum Holdings, the company behind the retail jewellers Mappin & Webb, Goldsmiths and Watches of Switzerland, has deployed a smoke-screen system at more than 40 of its high-risk stores' window displays. It fills the shop and its windows with a security fog within seconds of a break-in. Justin Stead, the chief executive of Aurum Holdings, believes its £200,000 investment in the Concept Smoke Screen has already paid off, given the minimal losses it has suffered in two incidents since the technology was installed.

Source: The Independent 15/08/09, James Thompson.