Thieves in charity clothing
July 2011
Charities lose out as doorstep goods collections end up in Eastern Europe
When the Charity Commission came up with its helpful notes to the public about what checks to make if asked to donate cash or goods to charity on the doorstep, it makes the point that an organisation doesn’t have to be a charity to carry out door-to-door collections.[1] However, most donors do not anticipate clearing out their wardrobes to line the pockets of charity bag thieves.
A recent feature in The Times headlined ‘Charity ends at home as gangs steal clothing bags for export’ (17 June 2011) highlights a more pernicious problem of the suburban doorstep becoming ‘a battleground for gangs of criminals fighting to get their hands on your cast-offs.’
The article goes on to report that there are ‘thousands of victims each week of international gangs of charity bag thieves, who police believe are now making tens of millions of pounds a year.’
Charity Retail Association members have been losing around £3m a year and that it was particularly bad because of the adverse economy putting a premium on second-hand clothes. The total losses, according to research by Clothes Aid and the Department Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates losses to theft at between 14,000 and 24,000 tonnes per annum with a value of between £7m and £12m to the charities collecting clothes door-to-door.
[2]
Bogus collectors ship clothing to be sold on overseas street stalls, mostly in Eastern Europe and Africa, pocketing the profit and giving nothing to charity. While designer labels fetch the highest money, mid-market names such as Next or Marks & Spencer sell for good prices as well. Even Primark and Tesco labels are worth something, and half-used cosmetics find a market, too. Mixed textiles are worth about £85 a ton.
Clear and practical guidance is available from the Charity Retail Association for donors leaving goods for charities in collection sacks and warns of theft and bogus collectors.
[3]
More than 50 representatives heard how the City of London Police and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) it manages are targeting the national and international criminal networks behind much of this crime.
The force’s detectives are running a major investigation while a charity desk, drawing on industry volunteers, has been set-up within the NFIB to analyse criminal intelligence and co-ordinate the national police response.
Speaking on Twitter the MP for Chatham and Aylesford, Tracey Crouch, described it as an ‘excellent seminar’
[4]Something needs to be done pretty quickly because articles like the one in The Times do nothing for public trust and confidence when donating goods to charity – and it is the charity shops that are already short of good quality items to sell – that suffer.
See also our In the Courts case on stealing from charity shops.
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from Cass Business School. She has been one of the judges for the non-profit category of the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Excellence in Marketing Awards for the second year running.
She has also acted as clerk to the trustees of a small almshouses charity and as a member nominated trustee to a pension scheme of a multinational publishing company.
Click here for other articles written by Clarissa Dann
Jonas, 27/06/2011
The worst thing is that people don't care who is collecting. As I work as a collector sometimes people tell me that an unmarked van has already picked up the charity bags left for me, but of course they did not see the van registration plates.
Ildi, 09/07/2011
What about all those Ltd companies who get FREE clothes from charities and they export and sell the clothes in Ghana and making a fortune from it? Is this legal? Can they do this?