21st June 2010
Operation Liberal responds to Doorstep Crime
Operation Liberal (currently known in Sussex as Operation InRoad) is the national response to distraction burglaries, rogue traders and bogus callers; commonly referred to as 'Doorstep Crime'. These type of offences can be committed by offenders who are known to travel across borders and further afield to conduct their crimes
The Operation Liberal team has issued an A5, six sided leaflet which is aimed at older vulnerable members of the community who are most likely to become victims of distraction burglary
The leaflet contains information under the following headings:
- What Is Distraction Burglary?
- How Do They Operate?
- Distraction Burglary Isn’t Common But We Must All Remain Vigilant!
- Rogue Traders
- Common Lies Distraction Burglars Use To Convince You To let Them In
- A Few Tips To Keep You safe
- Useful Contacts
You can get a printed copy of the leaflet from your Neighbourhood Policing Team or download a copy > >
26th August 2009
Hampden Park K9 Day - 26th September 2009
Eastbourne Borough Council and Eastbourne Police have joined in partnership with Hampden Park West Neighbourhood Panel, Friends of Hampden Park and The Hampden Park Users Focus Group to promote responsible dog ownership.
Please come along for a day devoted to being a responsible dog owner. FREE
15th May 2009
Burglary, Eastbourne
Eastbourne Police are appealing for witnesses to a burglary in Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne.
Thieves broke into a flat between 9am and 3.30pm on Tuesday 12th May, 2009. They stolen a small amount of cash.
If you have any information about this burglary or may of seen anything suspicious you are asked to call Sussex Police on 0845 60 70 999 quoting crime reference EE1/43985/09 or you can offer information by means of contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which could earn you a cash reward.
Distraction burglaries
Recently there have been distraction burglaries on the Districts around Eastbourne but none so far in Eastbourne. Persons perporting to be from the waterboard knock on the doors of the elderly and gain entry to the premises and distract them in order to steal any valuables within.
Whilst there have been none recently in Eastbourne and the offences on other districts have not involved any violence, clearly we need to put on guard our elderly to the possibility of these criminals attempting to commit an offence in Eastbourne.
The message to the elderly and vulnerable is simple. " Do not open the door to any unarranged visits, keep the person waiting outside with the door closed and telephone the company for confirmation that they are a genuine official, always check ID.
If the person is genuine they will happily wait outside for these checks to be completed. If you can arrange for a family member, friend or neighbour to be present during any pre arranged visits do so.
If in doubt always call the Police. If the person is at the door and has acted suspiciously call 999.
23rd April 2009
Shed breaks, Eastbourne
Today, Chief Inspector Dick Coates, District Commander, Eastbourne District, issued advice about thefts from garages and garden sheds after a spate of thefts in the town.
Chief Inspector Coates said: “Around this time of the year, as summer approaches, we often see an increase in thefts from garages and garden sheds. Gardening equipment is the prime target for the would be thief. With this in mind, it is worth considering for a moment the value of the equipment some of us have in our garden sheds which can run up to many hundreds of pounds.
"My warning today is take appropriate security precautions and be vigilant. The next victim could be you!” Make sure your shed is locked and secure as many of those entered have very little security measures. If you see anyone selling tools or garden equipment at low prices then let us know as if its too good to be true then it probably is.
If you would like any crime prevention advice, CI Coates recommends the Home Office website that is packed with useful advice and tips, www.homeoffice.gov.uk. Or contact your local Police Community Support Officer or Crime Prevention Officer who will assist with crime prevention advice – visit www.sussex.police.uk entering in your postcode in the box provided.
Home Office launches "Keep Crime Down" project
Click herefor Eastbourne Crime Reduction Partnership statement.
Street vendor toy safety warning
Residents are being warned about potentially dangerous toys being sold by street vendors in East Sussex.
The fur covered, battery operated toys are sold for around £5 and are available as dogs, rabbits, cats and bears.
The warning comes following an investigation by East Sussex County Council’s Trading Standards team. One of the toys seized by Trading Standards from a seller in Eastbourne recently was tested and found to be unsafe. The eyes, nose and bell on the toy detached too easily and could become a choking hazard. The investigation also showed that the toys are not labeled correctly and that they are unsuitable for children under the age of three.
As a result of the investigation into the supply of these toys, the Police arrested a man in Eastbourne town centre on Saturday 31 January 2009.
For further information about the toys please contact Trading Standards on 01323 463420 or e-mail Trading Standards
For more general information about the work of the County Council’s Trading Standards Service, visit Trading Standards website
Extract from article in The Times Supplement
Thursday, 5th February 2009
BURGLARS BEWARE
The crime stoppers behind the curtains
Meet the new home guard - With burglaries on the increase, Neighbourhood Watch schemes are rising to the challenge - this time with new technology. Lucy Bannerman reports:
The modern, semi-detached homes are immediately familiar to anyone who has seen an episode of Brookside. Recycling bins stand in orderly rows. Ford Focuses and Volkswagen Passats are parked dutifully in the driveways. Plasma television screens flicker through the windows and children’s bikes lie across lawns or by back doors and garages. One imagines that, for your average thief, this could be a lucrative slice of suburbia. But that would be to reckon without Graham Roe and the 17 other co-ordinators of the local homewatch association. There have been no burglaries on these streets in recent weeks – and Roe, the neighbourhood watch leader, is determined to keep it that way, recession or no recession.
In an era when new homeowners may be on closer terms with Facebook friends overseas than with the people living in their streets, the idea of Neighbourhood Watch might seem rather quaint. Yet the scheme has also found a new lease of life on the Gascoigne Estate in Barking, East London, where residents – some of whom had been burgled as many as five times in the previous 12 months - are convinced that it has helped to cut crime. And in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, a former ambulance-man has helped to re-launch a similarly successful scheme on the Platts Common estate. “It used to be chaos here”, says Barry McGowan, “and with the recession there’s every chance that crime will rise again.”
Britain’s first official Neighbourhood Watch was set up in 1982 in Mollington, Cheshire, about 35 miles from the Nurseries Estate. It hoped to follow the success of similar schemes in the United States, which were themselves based on the concept of the “town watch” during the colonial era.
The idea of community crime prevention was re-ignited in America by public outrage at the murder, in 1964, of a young woman who was repeatedly stabbed and sexually assaulted in front of an apartment block in New York. Although 38 people saw or heard the prolonged attach that killed Kitty Genovese, 28, not one called the police until the attacker had fled, 35 minutes later. Her death led to a new phrase being coined - “the bystander effect” - and her name became a shameful reminder of what happens when neighbours do nothing.
Today the Neighbourhood Watch movement covers six million households in the UK. It consists of more than 170,000 groups, ranging from scheme covering a single street to those with thousands of members monitoring whole districts.
An alarm specialist and manager of a security company, Hannah lives round the corner from Roe. He has installed a dizzying array of devices to keep the family home secure. There is “a combination of overt and covert CCTV cameras” with 30ft night vision, which are wired to the central police station. Then there are the “infra-red, acoustic and vibration” technologies, including an alarm that is triggered by the sound of breaking glass.
Even the doorbell has a label warning callers that every conversation through the voice security system is recorded. An “enunciating system” allows anyone at home at the time of a burglary to follow the high-pitched beeps that track an intruder’s movements from room to room. “And if all that technology fails,” he adds with a smile, “there’s always the dog”.
Hannah says that home security is cheaper than most people think. Buying and installing a few CCTV cameras used to cost many thousands of pounds, but now you can buy a whole kit for less than £1,000. he also pays £15 a month for a direct alarm connection to the police station, there being no guarantee of any response to a bells-only alarm.
“The technology will only do so much, though,” he continues. “I’m not so worried about the house. It’s the ones who knock on your door and say ‘give me the car keys or I’ll stab you’ - they’re the ones that worry me.”
Like Hannah, Roe identifies “stranger danger” as the biggest threat to the community, and believes that the first rule of beating home crime is simple: exclusion. “The more strangers you exclude from the estate, the less chance there is of a crime. It’s statistically proven,” he says.
The estate is a strict “no cold callers” zone. Some might say it is only a few fences short of being a gated community.
Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, welcomes “as many eyes and ears as possible” in the collective fight against crime - as long as homeowners don’t try to take the law into their own hands. “Neighbourhood watches are one thing but vigilantism is another,” he says. “I can understand the frustration in cases where people have gone out on the streets themselves, but that is a job for the police”.
Jane Holdship, a 27-year-old drama teacher who lives on the Nurseries Estate, has some reservations about people being “almost scare-mongered” into protecting their properties. But she admits that a communal concern with security does create a feeling of togetherness. “You fee protected. We all keep an eye out for each other,” she says. “It sounds rather cheesy but it makes us feel like a community.”
6th February 2009
Second ‘scamnesty’ to seek out the fraudsters
Residents in East Sussex are again being asked to help flush out the frauds and squeal on the scammers as East Sussex County Council runs a second ‘scamnesty’ campaign this month.
During February, Trading Standards officers want people to hand in any suspicious mailings they receive to their local library. The campaign follows a similar initiative that the Council ran in September last year.
Councillor Bob Tidy, Lead Member for Community Services, said: “The roll of shameful scams that people may receive includes:
- prize draws
- foreign lotteries
- bouncing cheques
- unclaimed inheritances
- pet offers
- easy money job offers
- tax rebates
- home working opportunities, and
- parcel delivery text messages.
They are all designed with one purpose in mind – to rip you off.”
All East Sussex County Council libraries are taking part in the campaign which is being replicated by Trading Standards teams across the UK and with the support of the Office of Fair Trading.
“During our last campaign we received information on over 600 scams,” said Councillor Tidy. “This helped us to better understand how the scammers are operating, how they are evolving and how best to tackle them.
“Our Trading Standards team now responds to every request for help from anyone who may know of a friend or relative or may themselves have fallen victim to these scams. By speaking to the person concerned we can help them understand the situation and cut off contact with the fraudsters. Unfortunately, our last scamnesty revealed some heartbreaking stories where people had lost thousands of pounds after falling victim to these criminals.
“There is a scam designed for everyone, they are operating on a large scale and in this age of the Internet and mobile phones, anyone could be targeted and fall victim if they are not alert to the problem”.
The following scams have all been reported by East Sussex residents in recent months:
Foreign lottery wins
You’ve won a fortune, despite you never having entered a lottery in Spain or Canada, and before they can send you the cheque you have to send them money.
Prize draw wins
You’ve won thousands, all you have to do is buy their overpriced products first, and the prize somehow never materialises.
Unclaimed inheritances
Someone with the same name as you has died abroad and left a huge inheritance, and that could be yours. But you have to send money first.
Easy money 'job' offers
All you have to do is receive money into your bank account and then transfer that money abroad keeping a percentage. But if that money has been stolen or obtained fraudulently, your bank will eventually recover it from you, and you could be prosecuted for involvement in money laundering.
Tax rebate
You’ve been contacted by email or phone and told you’re entitled to a hefty tax refund. But the real HMRC will never contact you by phone or email.
Home-working job opportunities
Earn hundreds every week and work from your own home. So if this is a genuine job offer, how come you have to pay them first?
Cheque bouncing fraud
You’ve sold your old car that you advertised on the Internet. So how come you have received a cheque for far more than the value of your car, why do you have to send the extra money abroad for 'shipping fees' and has that cheque really cleared?
Bargain pedigree puppy
You’ve found an adorable pup on sale on the Internet, and at a bargain price, all you have to do is pay transport costs as the dog is in Ireland. So how come you are paying the shipping fees to someone in Africa?
Premium rate phone calls
You have a text saying you have a large parcel awaiting delivery. Just ring that foreign looking phone number to arrange delivery. But you weren’t expecting a parcel and you could be ringing a premium rate phone based anywhere in the world.
For more information about the work of Trading Standards please visit our section on help and advice for consumers.
To find an Approved Trader, please visit "Buy With Confidence"
4th February 2009
Car Crime, Eastbourne
Eastbourne police are handing out advice on how residents can help in the fight against car crime in Hampden Park and Willingdon Trees.
Officers are urging residents to help themselves by emptying their cars before securing them and be vigilant of suspicious activity.
These crime prevention tips are printed on leaflets being posted in hotspot areas, also asking residents to provide intelligence on those who are committing the crimes.
Sgt Fiona Munro, Neighbourhood Policing North, Eastbourne said: “ In recent days there has been an increase in car crime in Hampden Park and Willingdon Trees. These thefts are taking place over night and the vehicle owners are discovering the next morning in many cases. Please remember to check that your car is secure when you leave it unattended. Never display anything discarded in your car, even a coat or plastic bag will tempt a thief. Opportunist thieves will simply help themselves to anything. Always remove your car stereo if you can – it is one of the most sought after item in your car. “
Sgt Munro further added “ Please be extra vigilant if you see or hear anything suspicious, call Sussex Police immediately on 999. Extra officers will be patrolling the area, particularly at night. If you have any information regarding suspects or information about this crime, please contact Eastbourne Police on 0845 60 70 999 or Crimestoppers free on 0800 555 111.