Halifax home insurance announced recently that unlicensed traders of goods in the UK are raking in more than £1 billion in profits from sales on the black market .
Approximately 5.6 million Britons have declared that they have purchased illegal goods in a licensed property such as a public house . A further 3.7 million of the UK’s residents said that that they would intentionally purchase stolen goods such as DVDs, CDs, videos and clothing if they were offered the right price for them. 2.4 million of these would even go ahead with the purchase if they thought that the goods looked as if they were stolen from someone else’s property.
Vicky Emmot, senior underwriter at Halifax Home Insurance, declared that “millions of Britons may be unwittingly fuelling a cycle of theft” in allowing burglars to easily sell on stolen goods in pubs across the UK. “Their pursuit of a bargain is part of the reason burglary remains a widespread social problem” she continues. Buyers of illegal goods can face prosecution if the items they buy are found to have been stolen.