One in five burglars come in at front door

OVER one in five burglars gain entry to homes through the front door, a new report has revealed.

The latest annual Eircom Phonewatch Burglary Report has highlighted how many criminals continue to be daring when robbing houses despite the risk of being caught.

The study showed that 30% of all burglars gain access to a premises through a front door or window.

It also emerged that 81% of all burglaries occur while the occupants of a premises are at home.

An Eircom Phonewatch spokesperson said the findings suggested burglars were not being deterred by home occupancy when selecting their target.

Jewellery remains the most popular item sought by thieves, accounting for one-third of the value of all stolen goods, followed by electrical equipment (22.8%), cash (22.5%) and computers (16.8%).

Houses with three or more bedrooms are the choice of the vast majority of burglars – accounting for 90% of all break-ins.

Almost 80% of homeowners now take measures to secure their property and its contents.

Nevertheless, almost four out of 10 homeowners who were burgled did not have an alarm fitted at the time. A quarter of all burgled homes that were equipped with a house alarm were not activated at the time of the break-in.

The report was based on an analysis of over 24,400 household insurance claims in the 12 months between July 2008 and June 2009.

In addition, a survey of over 300 householders revealed that more than three-quarters feel that they are more at risk from theft in recessionary times.

A similar figure also stated that they believed that actual crime levels had increased in Ireland since the economic downturn began in 2008.

Two out of five respondents said they also felt more threatened by the risk of being the victim of a violent crime.

As a consequence, 68% said they had become more security conscious in the past year with anxiety about home security their prime concern.

People said they most wanted to protect their “loved ones” and themselves ahead of prized possessions like family photos and important documents.

The report also highlighted how Dublin is the focus for most burglars with one in three of all house break-ins taking place in the capital. The greater Dublin area, incorporating the commuter counties of Kildare, Wicklow, Meath and Louth, accounts for more than half of all burglaries.

a slight decrease in the number of recorded burglaries over the period of the survey on a national basis, the incidence of break-ins almost doubled in both Kilkenny and Donegal in the past year.