What you should do now to safeguard against a break-in

02/07/2025

It’s something no PGA Professional wants to think about, but being prepared and knowing what to do before it happens to you is crucial, as Matthew Paget explains

It is a PGA Professional’s nightmare – a break-in and the theft of a substantial quantity of hardware from the shop.

This is what happened to Matthew Paget, when his premises at Royal Mid-Surrey were attacked in February 2024 and £150,000 of stock was taken.

Paget runs Forefront Golf, which is the golf services provider to Mid-Surrey, along with The Roehampton Club and Pachesham Golf Centre.

The emotional turmoil caused by an incident like this is only part of the picture. There is also the added stress of contacting police, dealing with insurers, alarm companies and much more as the process begins of putting a business back together.

It’s an experience no PGA Member wants to go through, but, here, Paget delivers some key advice on how to be prepared should the worst ever happen.

Make sure you’ve got the right insurance

I’ve probably been guilty in the past of just getting insurance in place – I need cover and so I get it. Questions you are generally asked are “how much stock do you need to cover?”

But you need to make sure you are covered for enough, and enough cover from a business interruption point of view. That was something, certainly when Covid was around, where we realised we weren’t as fully covered as we should be.

What happens to members’ clubs if they’re stolen from the back of your shop? What happens to repairs that are waiting and which can mount up?

What happens to the staff’s clubs? I’ve got seven staff at Royal Mid-Surrey and they all had their clubs stolen.

Have you got enough cover for each? They all separately listed, so you have stock cover, goods in trust, staff member provisions, and you just need to make sure that’s fully covered.

Here’s an example of how much you need to think about this. I recently went from Roehampton to Royal Mid-Surrey with 45 Odyssey putters that had been left with us to use at our sites as demo clubs.

It would never have occurred to me before to ask who insures that – because we hadn’t paid for it and we didn’t have an invoice.

Keep invoices for everything

One of the first things you have to do when putting your claim together is provide an invoice for every single thing for which you’re claiming. That includes staff clubs. That includes any members’ clubs or any repairs that needed doing or have been completed. You have to find an invoice for everything.

The thieves took every bit of hardware we had in the studio – every single head and every single shaft – and we needed an invoice for all of it.

Fortunately, my wife is an accountant and for the last few years has worked in the business. If it wasn’t for that, I would have really struggled. It took ages to do, because you have to put an invoice number to every item you’re claiming for and then you have to provide that invoice.

Ensure your alarm is serviced and to the required requirements

It’s really important you look at the requirements in your [insurance] policy and make sure they’re absolutely spot on and your alarm is serviced to the same requirements.

It used to be quite easy but Red Care is now becoming obsolete and it’s DualCom, which has GPRS and an internet connection so if one drops out the other kicks in.

You’ve got to make sure your alarm company fit that and it’s working. It was for us, but I got the feeling from questioning [during the claim] that it is something that can slip and people don’t have that.

So make sure DualCom is working and have that tested regularly and get the alarm system tested through services.

In a forthcoming article, Paget will offer advice on what to think about in the aftermath of a break-in