Business Crime Team
Our Business Crime Team are here to support our local business community and help prevent business owners, staff and customers becoming victims of crime.
We know that the type of crime that could affect businesses is often specific to this community and our Business Crime Team are equipped with specialist understanding and knowledge to support local businesses across Essex.
When local businesses do become a victim of crime, whether it’s through theft, abuse towards staff or cybercrime, the Business Crime Team will work with police colleagues and local partners to make sure those responsible are held accountable for their actions.
If you are a local business and would like more information about how we can support you or for advice around preventing business crime, please contact us.
Reporting crime
By reporting crime, no matter how minor you think it is, you help us to build a clear picture of what is affecting our business communities.
We assess every report made to us and the information you provide could help to convict prolific offenders who cause harm to our local businesses and communities.
It's really important that we know what is happening, so that we can take action.
Always call 999 if someone’s life or property is in immediate danger or if there’s a crime in action taking place.
We're here to support you
We want to help make our communities a safer place where businesses can thrive. We have a number of ongoing initiatives and policing approaches to support this which you can read about below.
We recognise that incidents of violence towards public facing staff sometimes go unreported.
We want to raise confidence in reporting these incidents, ensure the best possible investigations are completed, deter offenders and support victims.
Violence and abuse should not be tolerated and we are working with partners in the private sector to support retail staff who are victims of such crimes and to prevent them by providing businesses with crime prevention guidance.
We want retail and hospitality staff who are assaulted or abused for simply doing their job to report it to us so we can investigate and bring offenders to justice.
Petrol stations across Essex report losing thousands of pounds every month as a result of people filling their vehicle with fuel and leaving without paying. With many garages being franchises, it often means local people and local businesses are being affected.
Fuel Action is an initiative that works to reduce this crime and catch those responsible.
The team work with business owners and staff at local petrol stations by providing relevant crime prevention advice, along with information on what to do if they find themselves becoming a victim of this theft.
It’s important that that as much information is recorded about the vehicle and the driver responsible as the more information we have to work with, the more we can do to prevent it from happening again and catch those responsible.
We will not tolerate prolific and violent offenders who cause harm to businesses and their employees. The Business Crime Team will apply to implement a criminal behaviour order against those who continue to commit crime against local businesses.
A criminal behaviour order, or CBO, is a set of conditions placed on an individual by a court, which will prevent the person from causing further harm against the business. The conditions could include banning the individual from entering a particular shop or area, such as a town centre, for a defined amount of time. If the person breaches the order, it could result in a prison sentence.
This has proved to be a successful way of reducing offences such as theft or abuse towards staff.
CBOs also tackle the underlying causes of offending and, where appropriate, require offenders to engage in treatment services, such as drug and alcohol addiction support.
Partnerships
Working in partnership with local businesses and organisations like Essex Chamber of Commerce and the Essex Federation of Small Businesses, is key in preventing and tackling business related crime.
By working together, we can identify trends or common concerns, whether it’s something that affects the entire business community, a particular business type or something which is localised to a specific area.
Through having this information our Business Crime Team can take action, whether that’s working with policing colleagues to target a person who is continually committing crime against local businesses, providing relevant crime prevention advice, or helping to put businesses experiencing similar issues around crime in contact with each other through our business crime reduction partnerships and business against crime groups.
No one group can tackle crimes against businesses alone, which is why partnership working is so important. This has been recognised by Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington, Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Roger Hirst and Essex Chambers of Commerce Chief Executive, Denise Rossiter who formed the Essex business crime strategic board.
Stay up to date
Stay up to date with the latest news from the Business Crime Team
Additional information
Here you will find links to partner websites which have information local businesses may find helpful.
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Essex Chamber of Commerce
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East of England Federation of Small Businesses
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The Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre
Guidance for businesses of all sizes
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Security Industry Authority
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Security Industry Authority
Guidance for security operatives
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Security Industry Authority
Register of licence holders
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Security Industry Authority
Licence criteria
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PFCC police and crime plan
Reducing business crime, fraud and cyber crime