LATEST statistics on burglaries in Sedgefield borough have highlighted the need to secure properties.

Officers completed a "ring back" survey on house burglaries between April and December 2001. Each victim was contacted and asked questions about the crime.

The survey has been carried out for the past three years to give officers a clearer picture of security frailties in Sedgefield. PC Neil Langthorne, crime prevention officer for the borough, said: "What we tend to find is that we do get British crime survey statistics, which gives us the national picture, but when we look at them it just doesn't resemble life in Sedgefield borough.

"For that reason we created ring back a few years ago so we can follow up crimes in our area and ask the questions to burglary victims we wanted answering."

The latest figures were presented to the Sedgefield Burglary Action Group, which was formed under the Sedgefield Community Safety Partnership banner.

It includes representatives from the police, Sedgefield Borough Council, Three Rivers Housing, Disc, Victim Support, the youth offending team and The Northern Echo.

The statistics, which looked into 156 crimes in the borough, revealed that 82 per cent of the houses burgled were not fitted with a security alarm.

Of those houses which did have alarms, more than half of them were not set.

The survey also looked into offences committed during the hours of darkness, and found that 82 per cent did not have the entry point illuminated.

PC Langthorne said: "Security does work because if we look at houses burgled, so many have not got an alarm or the point of entry illuminated and it just enforces the message. People can get advice from the local police office on crime prevention, and it's free, impartial advice.

"We are conscious as a partnership that the dark nights are approaching, so now is the time that people should be thinking about security."

A surprising statistic showed that more than 40 per cent of owners were at home during the burglary.

But PC Langthorne said he believed the figure had been inflated by a spate of similar crimes in the Newton Aycliffe area carried out by one individual.