Guardians take fight to the offenders

A HARD-hitting day of action saw police across Greater Manchester get tough on burglars.

Operation Guardian saw officers visit the homes of prolific offenders — in Oldham there were 15 arrests and five search warrants executed.

Hundreds of students at Oldham College and Oldham Sixth Form College registered their valuables on the Immobilise website.

Since the beginning of the year, 143 arrests have been made for domestic burglaries and more than 100 search warrants have been carried out.

More than 1,000 residents registered their valuables on the free, easy-to-use Immobilise.com property database at dozens of special registration stations set up by PCSOs in community venues across Greater Manchester.

Officers also visited around 5,000 homes to give crime reduction advice.

Detective Chief Inspector Dean Fraser said: “With Operation Guardian, Greater Manchester Police are taking the fight against burglary to the offender.

“We are visiting them in the home, increasing patrols and surveillance where they live and disrupting opportunities they might have to commit crime.

“We are also bringing a whole range of specialist policing resources such as our mounted and dog sections, tactical aid unit and traffic network section to bear on these criminals.

“Our use of the new forensic response unit to provide a rapid evidence gathering service in burglary hotspot areas is helping secure water-tight convictions against burglars.

“This day of action is the latest of a whole range of activity targeting burglars and increasing awareness among residents of how they can protect their property from these crimes.

“Through Operation Guardian we are addressing this recent rise and greatly decreasing the chances of people falling victim to this distressing crime.

“Residents can play their part by following simple advice such as always shutting and locking doors and windows and remembering to use alarms, locks and lights to keep burglars out in the cold”.