Cash crimes spike towards Easter
Richard Phillips, joint chief executive of Cash Connect, a provider of ATM cash management and deposit safe services, said last year that March was the worst month for armed robberies. Picture: Lianne Butler Richard Phillips, joint chief executive of Cash Connect, a provider of ATM cash management and deposit safe services, said last year that March was the worst month for armed robberies. Picture: Lianne Butler
Cape Town - With South Africa experiencing a spike in the number of cash-related robberies over the past year, especially in the build-up to Easter, this year is set to be no different.
Richard Phillips, joint chief executive of Cash Connect, a provider of ATM cash management and deposit safe services, said last year that March was the worst month for armed robberies.
“Given the unprecedented increase in cash-related robberies over the past 12 months we expect that March will most likely see more cash crimes,” said Phillips.
He said that despite the availability of electronic transacting options, consumers still choose cash as their preferred means of payment with close to 84% of all transactions still conducted in cash.
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“Highly organised and audacious criminals are aware of this. They also know that around 72% of retailers deal with their cash takings in a traditionally manual way.
“These retailers present easy, lucrative targets to criminals who have sophisticated resources and are often fully informed of what goes on inside their targets.”
Phillips said that the law enforcement, crime intelligence and criminal justice community had failed to respond adequately to this “economic warfare” and the inability to contain these organised gangs threaten the core of South Africa’s cash economy and all who depend on it.
He said as a result, the cash economy is increasingly under attack.
“Conservatively speaking, the cash-in-transit industry suffered at least 256 armed robbery attacks in 2016, and 367 in 2017. Similarly, there was a total increase of 10.3% from 2016 to 2017 in shopping centre incidents, and while there was a marginal decrease in daytime armed robberies against high street retailers, late night armed robberies rose by over 30%,” said Phillips.
Arthur Gibson, managing executive for Fidelity Cash Solutions at Fidelity Security Group, said it is not an uncommon trend for South Africa to see a spike in cash-in-transit and store robberies over holiday periods such as Easter and Christmas.
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Gibson said that based on the trends, the company had risk mitigation measures in place to minimise any potential increase in crime over the Easter period. Fidelity will deploy more armed security officers and escort vehicles, particularly in high risk areas.
Gibson said high-risk regions include main centres like Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town but also outlying areas in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West Province.
“It is concerning to see the rise in vehicle bombings in these areas, almost 30%. This is almost double what was experienced the previous year. Fortunately, our increase is below the industry average, but the concern is still where these syndicates are accessing explosives from?”
Gibson said the group was concerned about the "highly sophisticated” cash-in-transit incidents throughout the country.