CLAMP DOWN FOR TEXTILES CRIME

On the 14^th September 2011, the Institute of Fundraising and fundraising standards board, hosted the House to House Clothing Collection Symposium in London. The hot topic of the day – Zero tolerance approach to textiles crime.

The issue surrounding textiles crime, theft and fraud, has reared its ugly head again, after the operation launched early September by City of London police. The operation saw 4 men arrested in connection to organised criminal gangs suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of used clothing.

Speaking at the event was the Civil Society Minister Nick Hurd. He spoke of is dedication to the a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to overcoming  textiles crime in order to overcome the loss in confidence the public now have to donating clothing to charities and legitimate collectors working on their behalf. He was said to have praised the efforts so far to tackling the issue of used clothing theft and bogus collections. The operation by the City of London Police was a well celebrated story at the event and Mr Hurd, commented to say he was ‘delighted’ by the results of this operation.

Mr Hurd raised his anxieties of ‘mistrust, concern and confusion’ among the public over the issue and stressed the importance of maintaining public trust in order to make sure people continue to donate via door to door clothing collections.  

‘The key issue is public trust. We’re trying to encourage them to give more and the last thing we need is activity that undermines the trust of the public in that giving process’ He added at the event which welcomed this statement.  The point that the public should be feeling that their donation is making a difference to the charity concerned, not contributing the theft and fraud of these criminal gangs.

He said that we need to realise the  impact of textile theft and fraud was and could not stress enough the importance on getting on top of this and ensuring the public that door to door collections are still a legitimate way for them to donate to a charity. ‘It is not only financial loss to charities but a growing sense of mistrust, concern and confusion among  the public so we need to get on top of this’

Mr Hurd voiced his opinion that in order for to keep on top of this the only way is for the public to be aware of what is happening whilst being assured that they can continue to help charities in this way.

Supporting a zero tolerance approach to criminal activity, Mr Hurd said that the operation by City of London Police in September has sent out a powerful message, both in terms of disrupting criminal gangs and also for raising awareness of the issue of textile theft with criminal gangs nationwide.

He went on to praised the synchronized method taken by  both that of the police operation and in the wider work carried out to address the issue. A prime example highlighted of this was the House to House Collections Code, published in March 2011 to raise standards among legitimate collectors, reassuring the public and also charities who seek commercial partners to help with their door to door collections.

The final point that Mr Hurd made at the event was how to maintain the momentum that had been created by this work. Some argued that more regulations will help but this was counteracted with the point that this would add further burden for legitimate charities and commercial collectors whereas would make no difference to gangs who would keep operating outside the law.

In order to maintain the work achieved on cracking down on textile crimes is for everyone to work together to ensure that these gangs do not get away with their crimes that are causing distress to the public, and charities and collectors concerned whilst they revel in the benefits they are gaining.

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