Criminal Gangs Search Property Websites and Social Media for Targets

Scotland Yard have warned that Criminal gangs are searching property websites and social media for potential targets for burglaries.

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Superintendent Sean Wilson said that people selling homes online or advertising goods on sites such as eBay or Gumtree should know that criminals are scouring the internet.

“If someone is advertising property for sale they should think about what else is on display in the background, such as an expensive picture, for instance, or jewellery,” Superintendent Sean Wilson has said, as he reminds people that they should be wary of selling homes online, or advertising goods on sites such as eBay or Gumtree, as criminals are constantly scouring the internet. Criminals themselves have admitted to doing this.

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Scotland Yard have therefore urged homeowners to take more precautions to protect their homes as the nights draw in now that the clocks have gone back and recent figures have shown the number of break-ins around London have risen by 13% in the last 12 months.

Madonna’s home in West Lodon was burglarised while she & her children slept. They took the keys to Ritchie’s Range Rover

The Met recently said it will no longer investigate low-level burglaries if it is not possible to identify a suspect. Mr Wilson, the force’s operational lead on burglary, insisted police were still investigating all burglaries – either in person or on the phone – but if there were no leads, no CCTV and no forensics then cases would be dropped. He said: “Forensic officers are sent to burglary scenes where there are forensic opportunities so it’s important for victims to take steps to preserve evidence by calling police as soon as possible and ensuring that until officers arrive, the scene is, where possible, left undisturbed – “This will improve our chances of identifying suspects.”

Paris Hilton was victim to the infamous Bling Ring – a group of burglars who pilfered from celebrity homes

He said officers were putting more effort into preventing burglaries through schemes such as the MetTrace project, for example, marking valuable items in people’s homes with an invisible liquid which can only be seen under UV light. Burglary in those areas has fallen 25 per cent since the launch. Police also support victims through “super-cocooning”, which includes extra patrols and encouraging neighbours to be vigilant.

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Mr Wilson urged homeowners to keep valuables out of sight, lock doors and windows and use timer lights to make the home appear occupied.

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England goalkeeper Joe Hart is robbed at petrol station near his club’s training ground

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England goalkeeper Joe Hart was travelling home when he was robbed by thieves on mopeds

Joe Hart, England goalkeeper is robbed by thieves on mopeds, who stole his phone, watch and wallet while he filled up at a petrol station near his club’s West Ham training ground.

A gang surrounded the 6ft5in goalkeeper with two mopeds as he got into his car and comes just two weeks after Hart’s £100,000 Range Rover was stolen from outside his home in Cheshire.

The three thieves struck near Romford, Essex, as the 30-year-old footballer was travelling home from the training ground.

The player – who is on loan from Manchester City – is thought to have not long returned from Lithuania with the England World Cup squad when the moped strike took place.

A source told The Sun: ‘Joe wasn’t hurt but he was pretty shaken up. He’s a big powerful guy and it took some nerve to rob him’ and added, ‘…if it can happen to the safest pair of hands in England it can happen to anyone.’ However, if anything, this incident only serves to sadly display how at risk our most exposed players can be, especially from targeted attacks.

The robbery came just 2 weeks after his £100,000 car was stolen from his Cheshire home

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MI5 Director, Andrew Parker warns of ‘intense’ terror threat that can be ‘harder to detect’

Andrew Parker of the Security Service said UK Intelligence are facing an ‘intense’ terrorism  challenge.

The head of MI5 has now warned that the UK’s Intelligence services are facing an ‘intense’ challenge from terrorism.

Andrew Parker said there was currently ‘more terrorist activity coming at us, more quickly’ and that it can also be ‘harder to detect’. To date, the UK has suffered five terror attacks this year, and he said MI5 staff had been “deeply affected” by them.

He also added that more than 130 Britons who travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight with so-called Islamic State had died. MI5 was running 500 live operations involving 3,000 individuals involved in extremist activity in some way, he said.

Speaking in London, Mr Parker said the tempo of counter-terrorism operations was the highest he had seen in his 34-year career at MI5. Twenty attacks had been foiled in the last four years, including seven in the last seven months, he said – all related to what he called Islamist extremism.

The five attacks that got through this year included a suicide bomb attack after an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May, killing 22. Five people were also killed in April during an attack near the Houses of Parliament, while eight people were killed when three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and launched a knife attack in Borough Market.
A man then drove a van into a crowd of worshippers near a mosque in north London in June, while a homemade bomb partially exploded in tube train at Parsons Green station last month, injuring 30 people.

In some cases, individuals like Khuram Butt – who was behind the London Bridge attack – were well known to MI5 and had been under investigation by the security services.

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News Source – BBC News

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