Chris Hipkins meets with Dairy Owners' Group over retail crime. Video / NZ Herald
An Auckland dairy owner has had two of his stores robbed two nights in a row, amid calls from business leaders for the right of dairy owners to defend themselves against robberies.
In a meeting between Police Minister Chris Hipkins and the Dairy and Business Owners Group, chairman Sunny Kaushal said they were disappointed they hadn't been promised the right to defend themselves, their staff and their stock from thieves.
"If we try to protect ourselves we get charged, and if we don't we get stabbed, so it's a serious issue."
Kaushal said self-defence was a human instinct: "If someone is getting attacked [by an] animal, you try to save yourself, it's our fundamental right as human beings."
Mahmoud Hardan owns six dairies which have been robbed and ransacked numerous times. Photo / NZME
Hipkins admonished the idea, as the Government didn't want to see an escalation of violence.
"We want to actually take the heat out of this issue, we want there to be fewer ram raids and businesses becoming victims in the first place," Hipkins said.
National's police spokesman Mark Mitchell said a promised reduction in crime following the Government's introduction of the Crime Prevention Fund in May has not eventuated.
"Labour announced the $6 million ... fund ... after significant political, media and public pressure. Former Police Minister Poto Williams ... said that Aucklanders could expect a reduction in crime.
National police spokesman Mark Mitchell says the Government has failed to reduce crime as promised. Photo / NZME
"Instead, more than 190 ram raids have taken place since Labour's announcement, but only seven businesses have received a single cent from Labour's fund."
Hipkins admitted there had been an "escalating pattern of youth offending", specifically in the upper North Island.
He said the rollout of funding to small businesses had been too slow but didn't say whether new funding would be allocated.
Mahmoud Hardan owns six dairies which have been robbed and ransacked numerous times. Photo / NZME
The support was to be managed by police and includes solutions such as installing bollards or other protective structures, like fog cannons and roller doors.
It added to the Government's investment in Police, to which Budget 22 added over $562 million over four years.
Businesses wanted access to the funding, but instead of being able to apply for the support police had to proactively identify each small business, Mitchell said.
"Police then have to navigate through layers of bureaucratic consent. Instead of blaming front-line police, the minister should take a look in the mirror and accept that his Government's soft-on-crime approach has created a situation where Police resources are stretched."
Dairy owner Mahmoud Harden blames the recent spate of robberies on the justice system, which he believes can't hold people to account.
Mahmoud Hardan owns six dairies which have been robbed and ransacked numerous times. Photo / NZME
Hardan's central city shop on Quay St was robbed for the eighth time in the past 18 months on Sunday evening. His Mission Bay store was targeted among others on Monday night.
"I'm experienced now, I know what to do," said Hardan, who owns six dairies in central Auckland. He said his businesses have only just picked up after struggling with the impacts of Covid-19 for two years.
Hardan was unconvinced giving police more money would lower crime. Instead, he said, the police and the justice system should have more power to hold offenders to account.
"Police can't do anything. Put a thousand police in the city, but they're not going to help you. [The Government] increases the budget, but it's not about increasing it - business owners need laws to be changed and systems to be able to cope with offending.
"What concerns me is that there is no reaction from the Government. I don't know if they're seeing what's going on out here. Are they seeing us? Are they feeling us? It's a question every business owner is asking."
Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Kaushal said the government had been "too lenient" and needed to "get tough on crime" in the face of offenders who "have no fear of law, police or consequences".
But Police Minister Hipkins said "tough on crime" rhetoric didn't always work as intended as young people could become "hardened criminals" by putting through the criminal justice system.
Instead, Hipkins said the pattern of youth offending needed to be broken through intervention programmes.
Hardan talked of the late-night phone calls he got from police and the stress of robberies "time and time again". When the Herald spoke to Hardan he was cleaning up the smashed glass littered about his store.
Police were called to Tāmaki Drive, Mission Bay, just after 2am on Tuesday following reports of a burglary at the Bay Convenience store. Thieves smashed through the front door, leaving a mess of glass and debris.
Mahmoud Hardan owns six dairies which have been robbed and ransacked numerous times. Photo / NZME
Authorities were then called to nearby Patterson Ave after reports of a smash-and-grab burglary at Hardan's Quick Picks Convenience Store.
"The police officer I saw was saying nothing will happen and it's a waste of time [to find the offenders]. He said, 'we're very close to catching them, but no point of it as they will only have a slap on the hand'."
Last year Hardan lost $65,000 worth of stock in five robberies in just one month, including one where a staff member was hit with a golf club over a chocolate bar.
The latest robberies come amid a spate across Auckland, where ram raids have increased by more than 500 per cent for the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2018, according to police statistics.
