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W•A•T•C•11•11•114•G T•H•E
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"TIVES
• Fact: British industry loses 237 billion a year to theft by employees. Fact: building material distribution alone loses 2635 million. Nearly every transport company has its share of thieves, warns Paul Burton, a former police inspector who runs security firm Burton International The company has been in business for 10 years now, and specialises in the distribution industry.
Crime is by no means restricted to shopfloor workers and drivers, Burton warns — many losses are traced to corrupt managers who fiddle the books or take a cut from orders. He sends in undercover agents to pose as employees, or stalk delivery trucks to spot unscheduled drops. The company claims a 95% success rate. "We were sent by a director of a firm in the North," Burton says. "He had been put on to it by his managing director. The stealing stopped immediately and we put him under suspicion. He thought the people in the yard didn't know what was going on: he lost a 236,000 job after 40 years with the company, and his secretary, who knew what was going on, lost her job too," he says.
RIVAL OUTFIT
Another big distribution company's telephone sales staff were working for another firm behind their bosses' backs and sending the best orders to the rival outfit. A female agent was sent in to join the sales department and discover which employees were behind the ring.
"You wouldn't believe the things that go on," says Burton's operation's manager Debora Harris. "In one haulage depot we investigated, everyone was on the take. Nineteen out of 23 staff were arrested, including directors. Often we have to have entire new staff ready to replace the sacked ones." The company's clients include Federal Express, Burma Oil and Elan International, but Burton stresses that he set up the firm to help small operators who had a problem with thieving but could not afford a full-time security team. A typical job will cost 2150 a day and may last a month. "For this you get a complete insight into who is stealing," he says.
Agents often work in teams. One poses as an employee, who sets out to gain the confidence of other staff. Another may act as a crooked driver, waiting in a transport cafe to be offered stolen goods, or may trail a truck to see where it makes drops.
They never use entrapment by tempting staff to commit crimes. Instead, they simply sit back or ask questions, passing their evidence to the employer who might call in Burton investigators to interview staff or call the police.
Prosecutions are not always the best idea, however, "For us, a success is if the thieving stops," says Burton. "A company needn't disclose to its staff that they've had a mole in. It's often better to close the doors on pilfering than go to court, which could mean had publicity."
Most of Burton's 90 undercover staff have police or military backgrounds. Many work from homes around the country, moving, if necessary, into safe houses or caravans which the company owns. All go through psychological tests when they apply for jobs to weed out anytne with records of dishonesty or evidence of emotional instability.
Not only would an investigation be wrecked if an agent were discovered, says Burton: they could be at serious risk, so disguises and false accents are standard tools of the trade. One happilymarried man even had to get engaged to a suspect to avoid giving the game away.
"You have to live like the people you're working with," he says. "You have to get dirt under your fingers or, if you're a painter, get paint on your hands. You have to learn the lingo. You never call cement, cement," for example, "It's called dust. You must buy the right mixes too."
There have been some close shaves. Once an agent dropped a breezeblock on his foot and went to see the manager who looked at his injury. The manager, who knew nothing of the operation, later revealed that he had rumbled the cover, because no builder would have had such clean feet!
Another time, Burton himself was in volved in an investigation, when on the phone, he accidentally gave his police background by replying "alpha, bravo", instead of AB. "The guy on the phone asked me if I was a cop," Burton recalls. "No,' I replied, 'a f-ing army boy'. I got off with it, but it was a near thing." He is also careful where he sends agents. A northener can be sent south, but never the other way round because, he says, southerners are not trusted up north. Operatives also have to be careful to use local slang where relevant.
UNDERCOVER
Only once has a Burton agent been spotted. "An operative who had been undercover on the Isle of Sheppey moved to Slough," he says. "One day a truck driver from the old company broke down outside and came in to use the phone. He recognised the operative and told everyone he worked for Burton. It was sheer bad luck, but our guy left quickly and the management denied all knowledge," he says.
Companies which employ cheap security guards — paid as little as 96p an hour — are doing little to stop thieving, says Burton. Many of them only work days, do not have the skills to spot where stealing is going on, or are on the take themselves, he claims. He admits his company is not cheap but says its success rate more than compensates for this.
Britain's rate of employee crime is among the worst in the developed world, and much of this is because of sloppy management and an attitude of resentment towards highly paid bosses, says Burton. In Japan, where company loyalty is high, staff thefts are almost nil.
Most incidents involve 'grazing', where employees habitually help themselves to goods for their own use, treating the deliberately broken biscuits in the supermarket or the odd bag of sand for the patio as a perk of the job. But, according to Burton, there is no acceptable level of crime, and it is never bad for morale to clamp down on petty pilfering. "Where do you draw the line?" he asks." At 210 a year, at 2100 a year or 25,000? Stealing is stealing. One tactic would be to stop sell
ing damaged goods to staff. It's that easy. But once stealing starts, the morale has gone anyway," he says.
"We had one case recently, where a car showroom had to shut because the manager was stealing. The young people joining the company think stealing is OK. It's ridiculous. At one firm there's even a union agreement that staff must be told a day in advance if they're going to be searched by security."
The latest kind of criminal, says Burton, is the 'butterfly thief. He flits between jobs at several superstores in an area, using his experience as a fork-lift driver to get employment. He stays nine months at each place, stealing for six, and leaving before the stocktake. "Many of our jobs are 'mission impossible'. One company got on to us after seeing a whole month's supply of materials go missing," he recalls. "They had 50 lorries and 1,000 staff. We had people following lorries, in warehouses, on boats. We changed the security guards. They even asked us to go back to the country of origin to see if the goods had left there in the first place," he says.
Burton has several rules a company must follow if it wants to cut theft: When taking staff on, always check their references verbally, and tell them not to steal. They will probably still steal, but not as much.
I: Ensure that every job, at every level, has a split level of responsibility.
E Do not have all your security staff on days. Most theft happens at night. 0 Theft is seasonal. There needs to be more security in dark months (except August, where thefts rise because management takes holidays).
TRUCK SECURITY
Most companies ignore commonsense when it comes to truck security, he says. Truck liveries serve to advertise valuable loads. Drivers park in dark laybys and forget to lock their doors. Even if they do, seals can be broken and re-sealed without anyone noticing. The company is based in a converted cottage in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, with only a small brass plaque to announce its identity ("we don't need the publicity", says Burton). It has branches in Cardiff and Hamilton, and a security division which provides uniformed guards to industry, the military, shops and even showbusiness stars including Barry Humphries.
Burton, who lectures on security for the Freight Transport Association, and claims never to have stolen anything except his "own time", insists that honesty is not something that can be bought with higher pay. "Some of the most honest w)ple are the poorest," he says. 111 By Murdo Morrison
Burton International is based at 4 Worburn Street, Ampthill, Beds MK45 2HP, phone (0525) 406111.