NEWSLETTER

December 2002

Neighbourhood Watch Liaison Officer

Billericay Police Station, Billericay CM12 9AB

01277 633090 / email billericaynw@talk21.com

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from Neighbourhood Watch and Billericay Police

Christmas Meeting

Hopefully you will get this before 4 December, please don’t forget the Christmas Meeting at Billericay football club. Short speeches and then lots of festive tuck! 8 pm start.

Where have we been?

You may be wondering what happened to the last three editions of the newsletter. Pressure of work and illness have kept me away from the keyboard. I hope to be able to get back to regular monthly newsletter production.

Thanks to the helpers

A good time to pass on our grateful thanks to all the co‑ordinators and newsletter delivers for their unstinting work over the past year. Without their sterling efforts we would not be able to distribute the 4,500 news letter each month.

Thanks also to all the organisations that have helped us over the past year, especially: Essex Police for our office and computer; Crystal Print, Decibels and Key Locksmiths newsletter printing; Billericay Lions for paying for our direct phone line.

Reduce the risk of Burglary

Almost all domestic burglaries are opportunist crimes - the thief does not spend time watching the property and planning how to break in. Most of the time the thief sees an opportunity, such as an open window, and takes it. The most popular items to steal are small (easy to carry and throw away if challenged) and high value, cash, jewellery, credit cards and cheque books. This is not to say that TVs, videos, hi-fis, etc do not get stolen, they do, but the thief is more exposed when removing bulky items from homes and such equipment is easier to security mark (you have marked all your property, haven’t you?).

What the thief is looking for is easy to enter, unoccupied property. You can reduce the risk of being a target, especially over the Christmas period when many houses are left unattended during the party season.

Try to think how you can make your home look occupied when you are out.

· Install a timer to switch lamps on and off at various times during the evening. Local DIY stores now sell timers at less than £5 each. Put one on your Christmas list.

· Leave a radio on, not loud enough to disturb your neighbours, but loud enough to be heard through the letterbox or a window pane.

· If possible, leave a car parked on your drive or outside your house.

· Ask a neighbour to close the curtains at dusk (and open them in the morning if you are away over night).

· If you are going to be away for some time, ask a neighbour to check on your house, perhaps put a bag of rubbish outside your house on ‘bin day’, move the post and newspapers from your door, just make the house look occupied.

· Offer to do the same for a neighbour.

Credit Card Slips

Whenever you buy anything these days you get at least one piece of paper, if you use a credit card or debit card you will receive a receipt of the transaction.

This time of the year we get a wad of them, but be careful how you dispose of them. Some credit card or debit card slips contain enough information for a fraudster to have a good crack at charging good and services to your account.

When you are ready to dispose of the slips, please rip them into small pieces and if possible shred them. It is not beyond some thieves to search through waste bags for the slips (after all, we probably put the slips in the paper re‑cycling bags, don’t we, so the thief would not need to scrape the baked bean sauce off them!). Some time ago a thief managed to charge over £30,000 to other peoples credit cards by using the information on slips discarded at a local petrol station. Don’t help them, make sure no-one can use your discarded transaction slips.

We are going to try a new idea. From February, on the first Saturday of each month we will be at the Police Station between 10 am and 11 am. If you want to talk to us, collect information, have your property marked, collect marker pens or anything else to do with Neighbourhood Watch come and see us at the reception area. If you want your bike security marked, just bring it along. We are going to try this for three months to see how popular it is. Watch this space.

Going away?

Just a word of caution about luggage labels. Thieves are known to look at the luggage labels to see which house is likely to be empty for a while. Avoid writing your home address on the labels until you are on your return leg. Always use the labels that conceal your address from casual observers. You never know who is watching.

Quiz Night

Sorry but it also fell victim to work and illness, but I will set up another one for the Spring time. Should have detail for the January Newsletter.

October Meeting

The last minute clash of dates at the football club caused some frantic re-arrangement, thanks to all those who pitched in to re-direct members.

It is about this time of year that we try to arrange our speakers for next year. We thought topics you may enjoy would be: Intruder Alarm information, Trading Standards, Self Defence, Air Ambulance and Citizens Advice. We are always looking for topics, so if there is something you would like to hear an expert talk about, let us know on 01277 633090 and we will try and arrange it.

Finally

Thank you all for your support this year.

We hope that Neighbourhood Watch has helped to keep Billericay safe and will continue to do so in 2003.

Crime Figures September to November

Burglary

23 House burglaries have become more common, but theft from domestic garages and sheds is still popular with the thieves in Billericay. Burglaries took place in: Crescent Road, Hollyford, Greens Farm Lane, Jackdaw Close, Charity Farm Road, Grosvenor Gardens, Bridleway, The Walk, Radford Way, Kenilworth Close, Dukes Road, Scrubs Rise, Mercer Road, High Street, Church Road, Farriers Drive, Anvil Way (2), Perry Street, The Pantiles, Crown Road and Devereux Way. £13,535 worth of our property was stolen and the thieves caused £5,425 of damage while breaking into peoples homes.

Theft From Motor Vehicles

3 Only three reported this period which seems very low and I think the figures may be wrong, so this is not a sign to get lax when looking after your car! Remember to lock it and keep valuables out of sight.

Three thefts were reported: St James Mews, Invicta Court and High Street. Property to the value of £630 was reported stolen and the thieves caused £100 worth of damage in the act.

Theft Of Motor Vehicles

10 Thieves seem to have moved to stealing cars rather than the contents, so remember to lock yours.

Cars were stolen from: Morris Avenue, Radford Way, Tanfield Drive, Oakley Drive, Norsey View Road, Brompton Close, Queens Gate Mews, Cornflower Gardens, London Road and Barleylands Farm. The value of cars stolen was £30,000—wonder why your car insurance goes up each year?

Criminal Damage

9 Well, the mindless attacked the High Street and probably felt very brave and clever when they smashed a number of shop windows. The caused £3,200 worth of damage in the following areas: High Street (5), Greens Farm Lane, Daines Road, Bell Hill and Lorrimore Close