Family gold theft on the rise in the Autumn months

Police have urged residents to secure their family gold in safes following a rise of gold jewellery theft during the Asian religious festival period.

In the last year, police have introduced a “flag system” to record the theft of family gold jewellery during burglaries and 192 items were recorded as stolen from September 2014 to September 2015.

Det Insp Neil Lemon said: “There is a traditional spike in burglaries in the Autumn months and a lot of residents will be celebrating during that period and taking their jewellery out of their secure locks. We recommends residents buy their own safe if they can or at least put the jewellery away when it is not worn.”

He added residents with family gold were not particularly targeted but they happened to be burgarled.

Police advised residents to mark their jewellery with their name and contact with the Met Trace Kit’s invisible pens to enable officers to return the jewellery to its owners if it is recovered.

Met Trace Kits have been distributed across the borough since the end of May and police aim to equip one quarter of the borough’s household with the kits in the next three years.

Overall burglaries in the borough have decreased from 2,800 reported incidents including 2,1000 residential burglaries to 2,423 incidents and 1,9000 residents burglaries in the last 12 months.