What We Do

A Strong Security Portfolio: Slashing Cash Crimes in the UK

DNA is trusted by police and recognized by courts globally. No other form of evidence has withstood such scrutiny. Expert Witness Statements prove that DNA evidence can positively trace stained evidence to the source.

• For the first quarter of 2010, relative to the first quarter of 2009, our UK CViT customers indicated that cash attacks were down 55% and cash losses down 72%
• The elimination of a single CViT attack would pay for the cost of our program
• In fact, over 100 crimes were avoided. Both customers attribute the decrease to “Deterrence by DNA”
• The return on their investment in SigNature DNA has been extraordinary
• approximately 1,100 CViT boxes protected  
• 91 police submissions
• 35 cases where the Applied DNA taggant was identified
• 57 convictions obtained
• 252 sentence years where SigNature DNA has been used as evidence

Cash-in-transit businesses transport and store cash and ATM cassettes. In the U.K. alone, there is an estimated £500 billion being transported each year, or £1.4 billion per day. The nature of this business makes cash-in-transit an attractive target for criminals and as a result the industry invests in excess of £100 million per year in security equipment and devices. The incidence of cash-in-transit based crime has increased over 170% in London since 2006, according to the Metropolitan Police. Governments and banks today face the real challenge of staying ahead of increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting without sacrificing security features and banknote longevity to costs.

Currently, a system of cash degradation, using a smoke or liquid dye to permanently mark and essentially destroy stolen cash, is used. For our customers, SigNature DNA is included in the transport devices that discharge an intense liquid dye onto currency when the transport box is illegally accessed or moved outside of a predetermined location. The dye renders the currency easily recognized as stolen in a process known as “cash degradation. Prior to the use of SigNature DNA, when banks identify dye-degraded currency, it was simply removed from circulation without attribution to its original owner. SigNature DNA markers allow attribution of the cash, since each transport box using our system has an individualized SigNature DNA sequence. In addition to working with the companies that transport the cash boxes, we have begun to work with and train police forces throughout Europe to better enable them to identify and properly handle the DNA marked cash for use in criminal prosecution.

Loomis chose to use SigNature DNA because it offers far superior qualities in comparison to other taggants. Loomis won an award for its use of SigNature DNA from the International Association of Currency Affairs at their recent conference in Prague for “Best New Product, Process or Currency System.”

Case Studies

The Challenge
With the downturn in the global economy, cash-in-transit (CIT) crime is on the rise. In the U.K. alone, there is an estimated £500 billion being transported each year, or £1.4 billion per day.

The battle for control
The subject of a national UK television special on the program Crimewatch, our use of 21st century DNA technology in a struggle with violent criminals shows graphically what SigNature DNA can do for you.

Read the Case Study