YOB behaviour is costing businesses more than £1.3 billion a year - impacting on their profits and their customers, a new study reveals.

Clearing up sick and urine, repairing smashed shop windows, erasing graffiti and sweeping broken bottles and litter-strewn streets cost each firm affected an average of £2,300 last year.

South East firms were harder hit at £2,500 per year but in the South West they escaped with costs of £500 (the lowest figure in the UK).

Research by insurers Royal & SunAlliance showed that 37 per cent of firms have fallen victim to yob behaviour with High Street shops the worst affected (44 per cent).

Larger businesses are even more vulnerable. Those employing 50 to 99 people are experiencing the highest levels of yob behaviour (59 per cent).

"Yob culture is causing a very real problem across the UK - so many businesses are blighted by growing yob culture. Some (two per cent) are even thinking about closing altogether," said R&SA commercial director Brendan McManus.

"It is worth remembering that not everything can be covered by insurance, while some damage is simply not worth claiming for, such as petty theft or broken windows."

Dorset Business chief executive Peter Scott said: "It is easy to be dismissive about small-scale theft, broken windows, and graffiti, but the cost of the clean-up operations typically comes straight out of businesses' bottom line.

"And while businesses in town centre locations are particularly vulnerable to this unwelcome behaviour, those in more isolated or rural areas - including our members - also feel the brunt of what is another manifestation of business crime.

"Our recommendation is for businesses - especially on industrial estates and business parks - to collaborate on their own enhanced security provision. The recent advice from Dorset Police for businesses to step-up CCTV surveillance should also be taken seriously."

Has your business been hit by yob behaviour or binge drinking? Are you a customer who has been adversely affected by yobs targeting your local traders? Email your experiences to Roan Fair by clicking on his name at the top of this story.