Ex-thief shows police that car crime in Burnley is 'too easy'

12:30pm Wednesday 17th March 2010

By Alex Willmott

POLICE toured Burnley town centre with an ex-car thief who found 90 ‘easy targets’ in 90 minutes.

As soon as the operation started yesterday, the former offender spotted a car which had suction marks on the windscreen from a sat nav system.

Officers approached the vehicle, which was on a car park, and found two doors unlocked and a window open.

Inspector Karen Edwards, who led the operation, said: “By looking at the problem quite literally through the eyes of a thief, we hope to be able to target the relevant motorists directly and hopefully to encourage them to change their behaviour.

“In doing so, we can prevent them from experiencing the expense and misery of falling prey to thieves and ensure that we can continue to keep crime levels low.”

The majority of cars in the car park had valuables on display including CDs, jackets, bags, sat nav equipment and food shopping.

Insp Edwards added: “In order to keep crime low we now need the assistance of motorists and sadly, despite our repeated warnings, many of them are still leaving items on display in their cars which means we’re still experiencing a number of thefts.

“The sad truth is that around 50 per cent of these thefts could probably have been prevented."

Officers said they set up the tour to get a better understanding of how a criminal mind works.

The 34-year-old Burnley man, whose identity is being kept secret, has a string of convictions for breaking into vehicles. He urged people not to give thieves an open invitation.

He said: “My advice is simple, use your common sense. People who leave things on display or leave any hints of the items that are in the car are asking for trouble.

“Its also pointless to cover up an item with a coat or a jacket because it does not take a rocket scientist to work out something has been left.

“People need to be aware that there are individuals walking around the car parks looking at cars and taking advantage of people who do not use their common sense.”

PC Phil Buck, crime prevention officer, said: “What we have to do is educate people about the reality of car thefts.

“If drivers took a few minutes to check that nothing has been left, I really believe we could drastically reduce the number of crimes to motor vehicles.

“What we have been doing in this campaign is working with the former offender and getting inside that mindset to find out which areas are most attractive to the criminal.

“We are also finding out the specific things which appeal to opportunist thieves.”

Overall, vehicle crime in Burnley dropped by 30.9 per cent in the past 12 months.

In February police saw a reduction in motor crime of 48.4 per cent compared to February 2009.