Retailers do everything in their power to prevent theft and damage of their merchandise, but unfortunately there are times when these negative situations take place. For businesses in the United Kingdom, recent research has revealed that billions of pounds are lost each year due to retail crime.

Financial Times reports that according to a study by The British Retail Consortium (BRC), retail crime between 2011 and 2012 jumped by 15.6 percent and resulted in a loss of £1.6 billion ($2.5 billion). These figures include the value of goods that are stolen or damaged as well as the money spent on preventing theft.

Unfortunately, this research looked only at reported crimes, and the study stated that retailers are often not alerting authorities when theft takes place, The Guardian notes. For every eight retail crime incidents, only one is reported to police.

“Systematic targeting of higher value goods by organized criminals is pushing up the cost of retail crime but the proportion of shoplifting incidents reported to police has plummeted to just one in eight, highlighting just how much there is to do to build retailers’ confidence in the way police forces respond,” said BRC director general Helen Dickinson.