The security industry is one of the ten business sectors vulnerable to threat from organised crime. So said Police Scotland Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone after a meeting of the Serious Organised Crime Task Force. DCC Livingstone identified the others as the vehicle industry, licensed premises, catering, property development and management, retail, health and beauty, taxi companies, the building trade and environmental (waste).
As well as businesses being used to launder money or becoming directly involved in organised crime, during times of high staff turnover, companies can also fall prey to an “insider threat”, as staff try to cash in on selling sensitive data or assets.
The SNP Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill urged business to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity. He said: “The Scottish Government is committed to disrupting and dismantling serious organised crime, and the unique partnership working between agencies in Scotland through the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce means we are getting ever more sophisticated at outsmarting organised criminals wherever they operate. There has been a huge amount of work done to analyse the businesses most vulnerable to organised crime in Scotland. Our partners, including agencies such as the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, are using vital intelligence methods combined with the full force of their powers to hunt down those who would seek to target legitimate businesses and exploit them.
“The Serious Organised Crime Taskforce plays a crucial role in educating businesses on the risk of organised crime and raising awareness on how they can best protect themselves against it.
“I would urge companies to take measures to protect themselves; from proper security checks when taking staff on, to ensuring all staff can report suspicious behaviour of colleagues via an anonymous reporting system or the use of confidentiality agreements.”
DCC Livingstone said: “Because of our sophisticated intelligence we now know more than ever before about how serious organised crime groups operate. We know the kind of businesses they target and we know how they do it.
“We are working more closely than ever before with local authorities to ensure we protect legitimate firms by ensuring those with links to crime are denied access to public sector contracts. By choking off their funding we can ensure that serious organised crime gangs cannot flourish in Scotland”s economy.”
Details of the work of the Task Force: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/crimes/organised-crime.
