A one-day conference at Doncaster Racecourse on March 14 sees the launch of the Regional Business Crime Forum and creation of theme groups to tackle crime against specific business sectors.

Organiser and chief executive of South Yorkshire Business Crime Reduction Centre (BCRC), David Ransom, said: "While independent campaigns have made some progress against business crime, this is a massive collective initiative to put crime out of business in the region. Make no mistake, it is vital we work collectively to reduce the impact of crime on economic growth and development."

Forum chairman and Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, Meredydd Hughes will be keynote speaker at the event which is supported by Yorkshire Forward, Objective 1 South Yorkshire, the Government Office for Yorkshire and Humber and the already successful BCRC.

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All four regional police forces are also backing the launch, alongside Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, Institute of Directors and Confederation of British Industry.

In addition to learning how the initiative will work, delegates will be able to explore grants and other support from the BCRC on how to tackle crime collectively, sharing best practice and addressing common problems. Going forward, theme groups will tackle specific crime challenges faced by particular business sectors.

David Ransom added: "The Federation of Small Businesses recently reported that 20 per cent of all crimes are committed against businesses, costing £19 billion a year. Businesses that are repeat victims of crime can close down, which adds to the downward spiral in deprived areas.

"BDO Stoy Hayward reported UK business fraud up 42 per cent at £538million in the first half of last year, mainly due to the rapid increase in VAT "carousel" fraud. Greed appears to be the key motivator for these crimes and sentences for those caught are light - supporting the theory that crime does pay!

"We're particularly encouraging small businesses feeling their way with IT use to step up security levels. As recent headline-catching events prove, a laptop computer costing £500 may hold £50,000 or more of commercial or national intelligence, if not a firm's entire database."

Chief Inspector Dave Fortune, Police Advisor to Yorkshire Forward, said: "Dealing with the aftermath of business crime adds significant costs to the running of a company and it's important that businesses have access to specialist advice to help them learn how to minimise the risks."

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