BILLERICAY: Burglaries rise 22%

By pdent-jones

AN ALARMING rise in break-ins has prompted angry calls for tough action from police.

Billericay and Wickford has seen a surge in the rates of burglaries in the last year – up 22 per cent according to recently released police statistics.

One area deemed "low crime", Crouch ward, has been hit by more than a doubling of rates in the 12 months up to October 2008.

Yet fewer than one in eight (13.3 per cent) of the crimes are ever solved, shocking new figures released to the Gazette reveal.

Det Chief Insp Liam Osborne said: "Dwelling burglaries are an incredibly difficult offence to detect and prosecute.

"We deal with a variety of criminals who carry out the crime, and some are more sophisticated than others.

"Billericay is quite affluent and is also situated on a main London train line.

"As a result of these factors, the area is targeted by travelling criminals, who are more sophisticated in their approach.

"This creates a challenge on how to target them."

And he vowed to use specialist forensic teams, and traditional methods of investigation to launch a fresh crackdown on burglaries.

The jump in the number of break-ins to homes, offices and outbuildings has provoked renewed calls for police to reinstate a specialist anti-burglary squad, which was shut down in June after just three months of action.

Then a detective told the Gazette the squad had been disbanded because it proved "unworkable" but now cops say it has only been streamlined to make it more effective.

Now a CID team investigates all serious crimes instead of one team dedicated to burglaries.

Basildon District Councillor Terri Sargent, whose Crouch ward has seen a 112 per cent increase in burglaries, said: "I'm absolutely appalled.

"Coming up to the Christmas period we don't want this.

"The police are telling us that we are a low crime area and that's why we don't get enough police.

"Why did they set up this squad in the first place?

"It is now more than ever that we need to get a grip of the problem."

Crouch ward, which saw figures rocket from 30 between November 2006 and October 2007 to 65 incidents in the same period this year, is not alone in suffering an increase in this type of crime.

Across all of Billericay and Wickford's seven wards, only Wickford Park saw a slight drop from 31 burglaries to 26 over the year.

But an Essex police spokesman said the court's soft sentences on prolific offenders had made it increasingly difficult to continue to cut rates.

"Without wishing to persecute or criticise the Government, the sentences that are being handed down to persistent and career offenders are poor," he said.

"We can do our bit, but residents need to take responsibility."