Distraction Burglary
Good Practice Guide
This page contains historical archive information on how the Home Office began its work on tackling distraction burglary.
In 2001, the Home Office Distraction Burglary Task Force launched a national publicity campaign to protect older people from bogus callers. In addition to the 'Stop, Chain Check!' campaign, the Task Force produced the Good Practice Guide, a toolkit containing the Tackling Distraction Burglary report, two videos and home security gadgets. 7000 toolkits were distributed to practitioners, to assist them in their work to make older people feel safer in their own homes.
Report summary
Title: Tackling Distraction Burglary
Authors:
Distraction Burglary Taskforce
Number of pages:
113
Date published: November 2002
Distraction burglary is a type of burglary where by the ‘method of entry’ is by trick rather than the typical forced or sneak entry. The most common guise adopted is that of an official, for examples as an employee of a utility company or as a council worker, police or other official. They also pose as canvassers or door to door sales people. The offenders can be male or female and sometimes use children to distract the occupant whilst an accomplice completes the offence. Whilst the crime is not classed as high volume, it has a disproportionately severe effect upon its victims.
Who are the victims?
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77% of victims were female
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23% were male
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74% of victims lived alone
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26% lived with someone
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12% lived in sheltered accommodation
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The average age of victims was 78 years
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An analysis of police records over the 1999-2001 period indicates an average of 14,500 reported crimes per year.
Who are the offenders?
They travel the country, choosing locations with a high density of older residents or mixed communities within easy access of main or arterial roads. Surveillance information suggests tens and sometimes hundreds of miles are travelled between offences. Offenders move on following a concentrated period of offending. The constant movement also makes detection both difficult and expensive compounded, by the incapability of police crime recording systems. This however, is set to change with forces exchanging data using secured telephone lines.
Reporting bogus callers
Under reporting of a crime is common for a number of reasons including:
Embarrassment
Fear or intimidation
Not aware that they are a victim
A belief that reporting the crime is futile
The report contains a great deal of useful information. It also provides a summary and survey of every region of England & Wales, listing the current situation and what projects are being employed to effectively fight distraction burglary.
Tackling Distraction Burglary in full
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