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Male assailant posing as customer asks price of necklace
On 1 November 2015, the sales assistant was behind the counter
at a jewellery shop performing her usual duties.
The jewellery shop was open to a public arcade within a shopping
centre and customers could access the shop simply by walking from
the arcade area into the shop area.
At approximately 2pm, a male assailant posing as a customer
entered the shop and asked the sales assistant the price of a
necklace in the display cabinet. The sales assistant replied that
the price was $13,000.
The assailant then asked if that was the best price, prompting
the sales assistant to remove the necklace from the display cabinet
and scan it at a nearby cash register.
Assailant unsuccessfully attempts to snatch necklace
The sales assistant then returned and informed the assailant of
the best price, being $7,900, at which point the assailant asked if
he could feel the weight of the necklace.
The sales assistant asked the assailant for his driver's
licence. The assailant pretended to reach for his wallet before
aggressively lunging across the counter and attempting to snatch
the necklace out of her hands.
The sales assistant held onto the necklace and resisted,
resulting in the chain breaking and falling to the floor and
causing the shop assistant's hand to bleed.
The assailant then ran from the store empty-handed.
Sales assistant suffers psychiatric injury following attempted
robbery
The sales assistant was visibly upset immediately after the
incident, with her colleagues describing her as being very shaken
up and with shaking hands. She could not speak about the incident
and expressed a desire to go home.
After the incident, she became nervous and anxious, experiencing
panic attacks, agitation and mood swings, startling at loud noises,
drinking heavily and preferring not to leave home.
As a result of the attempted robbery, the sales assistant
suffered psychiatric injury, making it impossible for her to go
back to working in retail.
She took legal action against her employer in the District Court
of Queensland, claiming that her psychiatric injury was caused by
her employer's negligence. It was up to the court to determine
if this was the case.
case a - The case for the sales assistant
case b - The case for the employer
My employer knew that a violent crime like this one could
occur. There were 31 snatch and grab incidents in its 34 Queensland
stores in the five years prior to the incident.
It was foreseeable by my employer that I might suffer
psychiatric injury if attacked by a much larger and younger male,
in a violent struggle for an expensive item as happened in this
incident.
My employer should have taken precautions to make my work safe.
It should have employed a security guard to deter any would-be
robbers such as the assailant.
It also should have installed security doors at the entrance to
the shop. This would have prevented the assailant from
making a quick escape, which in turn would have discouraged him
from committing the robbery.
It also should have displayed signs warning of the use of CCTV
cameras. If the assailant was aware that he was being filmed, it is
unlikely he would have attempted the robbery.
My employer also should have trained me to secure
identification from customers before removing expensive jewellery,
such as the necklace in question, from the display cabinet. Had
this occurred, I would have taken this step, which would have
prevented the robbery.
We could not have foreseen that the incident would cause the
sales assistant to suffer psychiatric injury, since she had not
disclosed to us that she had a drinking problem, or that she was
taking antidepressants to manage a pre-existing anxiety
disorder.
In any event, the sales assistant's psychiatric injury was
the result of previous traumas, including a motor vehicle accident
and being witness to a murder. It was not a result of the attempted
robbery.
The cost of employing a full-time security guard for 60 hours
per week in every one of our stores in Australia would be an
unreasonable precaution, as it would cost in excess of $12 million.
Security doors are not commonly used in any other similar jewellery
stores and would not necessarily have prevented the incident.
Everyone knows that jewellery stores are monitored by CCTV
cameras. Since the incident we have installed signs warning of the
presence of CCTV cameras in our other stores and this measure has
not prevented snatch and grab robberies.
The sales assistant was trained to follow a six-step sales
process. When the assailant jumped straight to the end of the
process by asking the price, she was trained to slow the process
down and gauge his intent by going back to step one.
Had she done this, rather than removing the necklace from the
cabinet, the risk of the incident would have been avoided.
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