Retail crime in Northland has shot up by 60 per cent in just five years, new data suggests.

Statistics from National Party spokesperson Mark Mitchell last month showed retail crime incidents in the region spiked
from 2487 in 2018 to 3984 last year.

While regional data on a fall in convictions was unavailable, Mitchell said the number of convictions dropped from 7011 to 6424 nationally.

Minister of Police Ginny Andersen said the Government was committed to providing the youth with a chance to get back on the straight and narrow, while also ensuring that there were serious consequences for criminal offending.

“We introduced a package of measures to get on top of this problem, including introducing a new aggravating factor for an adult to use young people to commit a crime, as well as an aggravated sentence for posting crimes online.

“We are also introducing a change to enable 12- and 13-year-olds alleged to have committed the new Ram Raid offence to be charged in the Youth Court.”

Gas Bream Bay manager Balbinder Singh said there were reasons to worry about the level of retail crime.

“We don’t feel safe anymore. When young people think they can commit crime and get away with it then it’s a problem.

“It isn’t good for businesses and certainly increases our stress levels. At the end of the day, we all work to pay our bills and feed our family.”

Singh said the gas station had an unfortunate incident last year when it was ram-raided by some people at midnight.

The most recent one was about eight months ago when the owner got held up by about four people in the store during the afternoon shift, he said.

“The guys were carrying hammers as attack weapons. Luckily, the owner wasn’t harmed, and they ended up taking up a whole cabinet of items among other things.”

Since then, the manager said they have installed a movable door with grills. The gas station operates with the grills on for customers who arrive at the gas station before 7.30am and after 5.30 pm.

Singh said having CCTV cameras did not help much since the majority of thieves had their faces covered up and were difficult to identify.

“As for the vehicles they arrive in are usually stolen and so are the number plates. So, I think from an authority’s perspective, they can only do so much and are doing as much possible.”

However, a business owner who wishes to remain anonymous said the Government wasn’t doing enough.

He said the current Labour Party had created an environment where people committing crimes weren’t scared of anything.

“Since the pandemic, things have gone from bad to worse. The Government messed it up when they handed out free payments to the public.

“People are now paying the price by paying more mortgage, rent, fuel and grocery bills. That’s what is encouraging people to commit more crimes. As for insurance, it’s getting more and more difficult to get our claims with such an increase in retail crimes.”

Andersen said the Government was aware that it needs to do more to combat retail crime.

“That’s why last week we announced a range of policies to increase accountability for young offenders, empower our police, and break the cycle of offending,” she said.

Other announcements by the Government to crack down on youth offending include the need for young offenders to attend education programmes or do community activities, a package of $26 million for additional police prosecutors, better cooperation between Oranga Tamariki and police for quicker referrals and stricter compliance, a new intensive programme to break the cycle for up to 60 recidivist young offenders and further expansion of successful “Circuit Breaker” fast-track intervention programme for young offenders.

Andersen said the Government was already working on two new youth justice units for up to 30 high-needs youth.

Avneesh Vincent is the crime and emergency services reporter at the Advocate. He was previously at the Gisborne Herald as the arts and environment reporter and is passionate about covering stories that can make a difference. He joined NZME in July 2023.