Businesses are hit by crime more than once every 15 minutes in the West Midlands.

That is the conclusion of a study of police recorded crimes in the region.

It found that in 2018/19, there were 36,510 crimes committed against businesses in our region.

The data includes offences like shoplifting, burglary, robbery, theft by an employee, making off without payment and theft from an automatic machine or meter.

Overall, there were 4.2 crimes every hour on average affecting West Midlands businesses.

That works out more than one every 15 minutes - or 623 “business crimes” for every 100,000 people living in the area.

The good news is that the number of crimes targeting businesses has decreased compared to the previous year, when there were 37,527. Of the 36,510 “business crimes” recorded in 2018/19, shoplifting was the most common.

Business say they are being targetted on a daily basis

There were 18,484 shoplifting crimes in all - meaning it accounted for roughly half of all “business crimes”.

The figures also show 8,515 cases of making off without paying, 6,446 burglaries against commercial properties, 1,023 attempted burglaries, and 12 aggravated burglaries - when the criminal carries a weapon.

There were also 1,074 robberies, 424 thefts by employees and 466 thefts from an automatic machine or meter.

In 2018/19, the police completed the investigation with no suspect identified in 26,978 cases - or 74 per cent of all business crimes.

That means that in nearly three quarters of cases, the perpetrator got off scot-free.

Across England and Wales, there were 606,282 crimes against businesses, which works out as 1,032 for every 100,000 people.

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That is a decrease compared to 2017/18 when 657,718 such crimes were recorded.

Larger areas like London, the West Midlands or Greater Manchester naturally have the highest absolute numbers of "business crimes" - because more people live and work there.

However, the pattern changes when we look at the number of crimes per head of population.

The highest rate of business crime per person is actually in Cleveland, where there were 1,948 for every 100,000 people - up from 1,920 in 2017/18.

Humberside was second (1,567 for every 100,000 people) and Northumbria third (1,532 for every 100,000 people).

Shoplifting was the most common crime, with 374,395 cases recorded. Burglaries were second (109,391 crimes), followed by people making off without paying (83,032 crimes).

There were 16,886 attempted burglaries and 9,835 thefts from an employee, as well as 8,256 robberies and 4,050 thefts from an automatic machine or meter.

A National Police Chiefs' Council spokesman said: "The National Business Crime Centre works closely with businesses and police forces to help raise standards and prevent and combat crime. "We encourage businesses to report all crimes to their local police force and we are currently looking at ways to make online reporting easier to ensure that we have a better understanding of the extent of crimes against business and can develop a joint response to tackle them.”

The number of business crimes

Police force // Offence description // Number of offences

West Midlands // Aggravated Burglary Business and Community // 12

West Midlands // Attempted Burglary Business and Community // 1,023

West Midlands // Burglary Business and Community // 6,446

West Midlands // Making off without payment // 8,515

West Midlands // Robbery of business property // 1,074

West Midlands // Shoplifting // 18,550

West Midlands // Theft by an employee // 424

West Midlands // Theft from automatic machine or meter // 466

West Midlands Total // // 36,510