BURGLARY victims are being urged to help themselves in an innovative scheme to be launched on Monday (June 15).

A crime file is being sent to 3,000 break-in targets in a bid to persuade them to protect their property against future attack.

The pack is being distributed to victims of domestic burglary all over Blackpool, in a new plan aimed at encouraging victims of crime to look after themselves.

Statistics show a house is more likely to be burgled if it has been singled out before - and police chiefs are aiming to highlight the added danger which follows immediately after a crime.

The scheme, dubbed Burglary Alert, gets its official send-off at the Lancashire headquarters at Hutton, but already some of the 3,000 self-help packs containing an ultra-violet property-marking pen and crime alert cards have been sent out.

Over the next twelve months thousands more will land through the town's letterboxes and, in high-risk areas, neighbours will be armed with 'crime alert' cards to encourage them to keep a vigil on nearby properties.

The cards have been specially designed to arm householders with information to set up neighbourhood watch schemes and seek crime prevention advice.

Sergeant Steve Saddington of the Partnerships and Community Safety Department was the brains behind the scheme.

He said: "The reduction of domestic burglary has been - and will undoubtedly remain - a concern of the police."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.