If your business has been a victim of crime and you have reported the incident to the police, all you want to hear is that the criminal has been found, charged and convicted. Well, at BOSS, we don’t just collect details about incidents on forecourts; we proactively pursue offenders.

BOSS works closely with the Home Office’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and Action Fraud. We also analyse and collect information about suspected multiple offenders to provide a comprehensive package of evidence for the police, leading to faster and more effective action. An advantage of working with these agencies is that suspects’ details are checked against other intelligence and retained in the event of future offending, therefore helping to make our neighborhoods safer.

During 2015, BOSS identified more than 1,000 cases where serial offenders claiming to have ’no means of payment’ did not return to pay. More than 200 cases resulted in a positive police outcome, with many others at various stages of prosecution. Offenders have received penalties including fines, community supervision orders and drug rehabilitation orders. And under the BOSS scheme, links between drive-offs, theft, multiple frauds and various other crime types have been established and the perpetrators prosecuted.

Recent court cases saw John Stokes at Warrington Magistrates Court where he received 200 hours unpaid community work and an order for compensation for 11 ’no means of payment’ (NMoP) offences. Paula Welford was found guilty in Northampton of 13 NMoP offences and her sentence also included a compensation award. In the south, James Cable appeared before Hastings Magistrates Court and was found guilty of eight offences of fraud by false representation and sentenced to 10 days’ imprisonment.

BOSS is a founder member of the Home Office’s Forecourt Crime Senior Steering Group. Since the group was established, we’ve proposed new initiatives to help reduce pressure on police resources and improve detection. But our activities are not just about the recovery of money owed to retailers, BOSS also pursues court compensation.

So far this year BOSS has repaid more than £8,000 in compensation for over 200 individual debt receipts from court compensation awards.

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