Thousands of shoplifters are escaping punishment because police are not passing on offenders’ names and address to the private companies that handle compensation claims.

Retailers are losing around €4 million a year in compensation from shoplifters who they are unable to identify, according to Stichting DAAD, the organisation that regulates civil claims to recover the costs of crime.

“Of the 500 requests that police receive per week, only 20 to 25 come back,” Lex Westerman, general manager of Stichting DAAD told NOS. He said around 20,000 shoplifters were not pursued last year as a result.

SODA, one of the two organisations that shops and retailers use to process compensation claims, said the amount of information received from police had dropped sharply since February last year.

Police admitted they were passing on fewer offenders’ details, but said the process had become more labour intensive after an automatic system for sharing information was switched off last year.

The system was found to be vulnerable to errors, while privacy laws prevent police from sharing some personal details automatically.

Trust in government

“This is reducing the willingness to report offenders and trust in government,” Niels van Os, managing director of SODA, said.

Retailers are allowed to reclaim €181 from shoplifters to compensate for the time spent pursuing them, in addition to the value of the stolen goods.

Many shops and supermarkets outsourced the claims process to third parties, of which SODA and Overlastregistratie Nederland are the biggest market players.

Licensed third-party companies have been able to acquire information from police since 2016, but the process has been dogged by legal and ethical issues. Talks on devising a new system have been ongoing since last February, but so far without success.

A police spokesman said: “The police are working on a new national procedure, but we need time to develop it thoroughly and roll it out within our organisation.”

The problem has also been complicated by a legal row between the two main companies handling compensation claims. Overlastregistratie Nederland claim SODA were unfairly prioritised, allowing their rivals to process information faster and giving them a competitive advantage.

An inquiry by the national ombudsman found that police had not treated the two companies equally and described the force’s behaviour as “unreasonable and inappropriate”. Overlastrergistratie Nederland launched a compensation claim which is currently going through the courts.