NSW crime statistics: Bottle shops say early closing times to blame for rise in liquor theft

Bottle shops have blamed a rise in liquor theft across NSW on early closing times enforced upon them as part of the state government's suite of lockout laws.

The state's quarterly crime statistics, released last week, showed a 7.9 per cent increase in stealing from retail stores over the past two years, largely driven by thefts of liquor, electronics and perfume.

Fairfax Media published the full list of items stolen in 2015, showing that alcohol made up five of the top 10 items stolen.

Spirited away: Bourbon and other alcoholic drinks have driven a surge in thefts from retail stores across NSW. Photo: Viki Yemettas

Bourbon had surged to the number one spot, with almost double the amount of thefts since 2011.

Bottle shop owners have since claimed the 10pm state-wide store closure, introduced in February 2014, is partly to blame because stores are getting crowded just before closing time and angry customers are doing a 'grab and run'.

"In the last 10 minutes before closing time there is a bit of a rush, stores are having to start closing and we're finding people arriving and being quite frustrated," said Michael Waters, executive director of the Liquor Store Association of NSW.

"A lot of our members are reporting quite a few incidents including physical and verbal violence towards staff and increases in thefts," he said.

Mr Waters said there wasn't the same demand during closing times before the new laws, and the reports were anecdotal only.

Liquor industry publication The Shout said Sydney retailers they had spoken to were unanimous there had been a significant surge in petty theft since the new closing times.

An anonymous retailer told the website: "People thought, 'How ridiculous', even though they were alerted to [the closing time] and we had people just run out of the shop with goods. They said, 'Well if you're not going to serve me, I'm just going to take it anyway', so we had a bit of confrontation."

Giuseppe Minissale, general manager of Porters Liquor, told Fairfax Media he had seen no such thing.

"Far from it. Theft is up because people don't have the disposable income to buy alcohol at such a high price," he said.

Don Weatherburn, director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, said the hypothesis was extremely unlikely but the bureau would examine the data further.

Retail store thefts fell during the first year of the lockout laws in 2014 then rose in the next year. The recent increase was most prominent in the northern beaches, Central Coast, Coffs Harbour, Bathurst, eastern suburbs, Sutherland Shire and Tamworth.

Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, said he had never seen a change in closing times affect theft from retail stores.

He said the surge in thefts was more likely to be related to a slightly tougher economy.

"Retail theft is more around the cost of the product," he said.

The state government is in the process of conducting an independent review into the effectiveness of the 1.30am lock outs, 3am closing times and 10pm take-away liquor laws.