Businesses Lose £190m Every Year to Employee Theft
Fewer than one in seven office thieves have lost their jobs upon being caught - stationery named as "most stolen" item
UK businesses lose an astonishing £190m every year due to employee theft, according to a report from Kit Out My Office.
Surveying 2,106 employees, two-thirds admitted to stealing from their workplace and 11% confessed to having stolen personal items from their colleagues.
73% of respondents said that they’d never been caught stealing from their office and, of the 27% who admitted they had, 51% said they had faced no penalisation or consequence for their action.
Stationery (71%), such as pens and sellotape, topped the most stolen items list with toilet rolls (52%) and food and drink (44%) coming second and third respectively.
Gareth Jones, digital marketing manager for Kit Out My Office, said:
“It’s a real surprise to see how much a few pens and toilet rolls here and there add up. It may seem harmless, but this equates to tens of millions of pounds per year and is clearly a very real threat for UK companies.”
