Kent police have recently released statistics that reveal crime in Folkestone is on the rise. Particularly in the Cheriton and Park Farm areas. These figures cover the period from April 2014 to March 2015.

During this time, there was a total of 2,158 crimes which, when you consider the size of the area, is fairly shocking.

Anti-social behaviour was the most common crime with 677 offences, which accounted for just under a third of the total. Following this, at 20.15%, were violence and sexual offences, with “other theft” in third place.

Three Burglaries A Week

However, only just behind “other theft” was burglary, with 154 cases during the year. Around three every week…

While some of these might have taken place on the Park Farm industrial estate, or in the Cheriton shopping area, the majority were burglaries in private homes, since most of the area is residential.

Remember: the majority of thieves want an easy life.

Certainly, there are what one might refer to as “professional thieves”, such as the Hatton Garden jewel thieves at Easter, who are up for a challenge, but many domestic burglaries are carried out by people desperate for money.

These burglars want to break into a home, steal what they can and leave quickly. It is a fact that the average burglar is in your home for around eight minutes. During that time, he can ruin your life.

Crime in Folkestone is easy to get away with

Of those 2,158 crimes in Cheriton and Park Farm, just 31 offenders were sent to prison. That’s only 1.4%.

In addition, in 70.85% of all cases, the police recorded “no further action”. Mainly because they were “unable to prosecute the suspect”, or could not find a suspect.

Only a fraction over 10% of offenders were sent to court and many of these received a suspended prison sentence, a community sentence, or were fined.

It is easy to see from these figures that burglars will get away with it in most cases. What’s more, if police cannot find a suspect, you are very unlikely to get any stolen property returned.

The moral is to take every precaution that you can, so that any potential burglar will look for an easier target than your well-protected home.

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