Aleem Farooqi, Scottish President of the NFRN, has highlighted the abuse and violence independent retailers face every day.
Writing in The Herald on the first anniversary of the Protection of Workers Act in Scotland, which made it a specific offence to assault, abuse or threaten a retail worker, he said: “Fellow retailers who have caught shoplifters have been called ‘P*** bastards/bitches’, ‘Black bastards’, and invited to ‘Have a bath, ya black bastards’”.
“We have been followed to our cars late at night, threatened with being stabbed and our shops burned down.
“We ask for the law to protect us not least because the flashpoint for abuse and violence is often our enforcement of the laws on shoplifting and sales of alcohol and cigarettes.”
Farooqi said he is “grateful” for the new law, instigated by Labour MSP Daniel Johnson, adding: “I would like to hope that one day it makes a real impact on the stress, fear and financial impact of retail crime.”
