Businesses selling stolen goods 189/2025

FOI Reference: 189/2025

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act please can I request the following information broken down by the following calendar years: 2017, 2018, 2019 ,2020 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

1) How many investigations have been launched into businesses for breaches of Section 22 of the Theft Act 1968. I.e. how many businesses investigated for “handling stolen goods”

2) Of those how many resulted in a charge or summons.

I would be interested in any information held by your organisation regarding my request. I understand that I do not have to specify particular files or documents and that it is the department’s responsibility to provide the information I require

Response 1&2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

• For the period covering 2017 – 2024 there have been a total of zero (0) instances recorded of businesses being investigated for “handling stolen goods”.                                   

It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate. Police Forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recoding criteria is set nationally.  However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted that for these reasons this Force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.           

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 25/02/25)