The information shows there is a burglary every 40 seconds in the UK, that lone parent households are twice as likely to be targeted and that 44% of burglaries take place during broad day light.

As you can see it also highlights the areas of the UK which are most affected and what is most likely to be stolen if you are burgled.

Take a look at the graphic to find out more.

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Motion sensitive security lighting is a great way to protect your home from potential intruders. It is an unobtrusive form of security and once you have fitted a security floodlight to your property there is very little you have to do to maintain it.

Two main types of motion activated security floodlight are available. The first and most commonly used type is powered by mains electricity of your home or office. These usually use a halogen bulb which can be very bright depending on the wattage you choose and the most common type allows you to tilt the light up and down. These lights have been around for years and are found on millions of homes around the world.

The other type of security floodlight is powered by the sun. Solar powered security lights are becoming ever more popular due to their brightness, ease of use, ease of installation and convenience. Our best selling solar powered security light is the Evo36. The Evo36 looks very similar to other mains electricity powered floodlights, but instead of using a mains electricity source from your home, office or garage to power it at night, it uses a solar panel to convert the sun’s energy into electricity which charges the internal batteries during the day allowing the light to work at night.

Unsurprisingly the charge of these batteries wouldn’t be enough to illuminate a halogen bulb for very long. So how can these types of light illuminate many times each night with almost the same intensity as a regular halogen light bulb? Well, instead of using a power hungry halogen bulb, the Evo36 uses 36 super bright LED’s which consume very little power but can be almost as intense as a 150W mains powered light. This allows small batteries to be used therefore making the Evo a very compact floodlight. The Evo36 will happily illuminate its surroundings up to 30m (100ft) away and can detect motion with its built-in, fully adjustable PIR (Passive Infra Red) sensor up to 12m (39ft) away, shining a light on possible intruders well before they reach your doors or windows.

The Evo security light range comes complete with a 2W solar panel which has been specifically designed to charge the relatively small internal batteries during a typical day in the UK all year round. They have even been designed with an integrated mounting panel which makes for simple fitting and full adjustment of the angle of the solar panel, allowing you to tilt it to capture as much sunlight as possible. Ideally the solar panel should be positioned so that it is facing south and is free from any obstruction between it and the sun. As this may not always be possible to do on all homes, it is also powerful enough to work on east and west facing walls under normal operating conditions. However if your light is used often, you may need extra power. This is where the Evo security light excels over other security lights. A second 2W solar panel can easily be added, giving you double the amount of power to help fully charge those batteries throughout the shorter winter days.

The best bit about the Evo36 over mains powered security lights has to be its ease of installation. No mains electricity is needed which means that anybody can fit one of these security lights almost anywhere, allowing you to protect every inch of your property, even the hard to reach areas.  Furthermore, as you don’t have to mess about with electricity there is no chance of wiring it up incorrectly, or even worse electrocuting yourself! It can be fitted on a fence at the bottom of your garden quickly and easily. Why not fit one to your shed, outbuilding or even your horse stable?

To fit this security light all you have to do is find a suitable location for the light and the solar panel. Fix the security light to the surface of your choice with the fixings included and angle the light and the PIR sensor to suit. Then fix and angle the solar panel in such a position as to maximise the amount of sunlight it may get. Then all that is left to do is to plug it into the back of the light unit. The solar panel comes complete with 5m of cable which is long enough for most installations, but should you need to extend it a 3m extension cable is available allowing you to fit the light and the solar panel in two separate locations. It really couldn’t be easier.

Order yours today and fit it within an hour of it arriving at your doorstep!

Items such as handcuffs, warrant cards, uniforms and equipment such as speed guns, breathalysers, riot shields and even a red “door whammer” have been pinched from under the noses of our great British police force.

Other items which have gone missing include CCTV footage along with a TV from West Oxfordshire Police, £48 tea float from Pontefract Police station, crumpets from Priory Road Police station in Hull and even 20 toilet rolls from West Mercia Police.

Over these past 5 years many thousands of pounds worth of goods have seeming gone missing. The force which has racked up the most amount of losses was Greater Manchester totalling more than a staggering £86,000.

And what was the largest, most expensive item stolen from the Police? It takes some guts, but in 2008 a thief managed to steal a patrol car from a Police station in Northumberland. That’s right; a £12,000 Police patrol car was taken from outside the station and later found crashed.

Although this was a particularly large item to steal, most were smaller, low value goods which could be stolen by opportunists thieves who would take advantage of belongings and goods which were unattended.

If there was ever a reason to keep your belongings secure when they are unattended, this is it. There are too many opportunist thieves around who have no fear of the law to keep your possesions unsecured.

We were talking about how siren boxes can give a false impression to potential intruders. This may sound a little strange, but it becomes somewhat clearer when you think about old burglar alarms.

When a burglar alarm siren box looks old, faded and dirty it may look unused or even too old to work even though the home or business owner uses it without fail every day.

If a burglar sees an old alarm siren they may assume the property is no longer armed and be tempted to break in. If they do, the alarm will sound and they will no doubt make a run for it. Although nothing has been stolen there will be damage from the break in which will need to be fixed.

All this for the sake of not replacing an old looking siren with a new one. It makes you think doesn’t it?

It’s easily done, from not inputting the code correctly or quick enough to forgetting the alarm is armed and opening an armed door.

This can alert neighbours, passersby or the police if they are in the immediate area or if the alarm automatically notifies the police if it is triggered.

Sometimes the smallest thing such as a book falling over or paper falling off a table can be enough to trigger the alarm even when the house is empty. These false alarms can make neighbours less alert to a real break-in so take a little time to try to eliminate them.

Christmas time is an especially important time to think about possible false alarms as there are many decorations, ball-balls and Christmas cards which are prone to falling down and creating a false alarm possibly wasting police time and causing your neighbours to ignore your burglar alarm sounding in the future.

Ensure all your Christmas decorations are fitted securely to eliminate any chance of a false alarm.

Christmas is a time of joy, a time for sharing and a time for giving. But for some it is a time for taking!

Everyone is aware that around Christmas time our homes are full presents some of which are very expensive such as games consoles, cameras, I phones, I pads, new TV’s, jewellery and much more.

All this is very tempting for a burglar or thief. The idea of rich pickings which in some cases can be easy to steal can make for a great Christmas for them, but a horrible one for you and your family.

This Christmas take a little time to protect your home from the risk of burglary and have a fabulous Christmas with your children and family members.

Entry points such as doors and windows are the weakest points of your home. If your doors, windows or locks are of poor quality try to have them replaced if you can. New UPVC doors and windows will often offer a high level of security as they will have multi-point locking systems in place which will secure the top, middle and bottom of the opening. Plus the glass will be double glazed which is much stronger than single glazed panes and will offer much better thermal insulation for your home.

If it is not possible to have new windows and doors fitted, make sure that they are as strong as they can be by fitting stronger locks, additional locks or door chains. And it goes without saying; always make sure your windows and doors are kept locked at all times, even if you are at home. Some opportunist thieves will wait until you are distracted, or are wait for you to go upstairs and enter you home and steal whatever they can whilst you are in the house.

Always keep your keys hidden. If a thief gets these it will not only cost you the price what has been stolen, but also the price of having new locks fitted. Even if your keys are out of sight from windows remember to keep them out of sight of the letterbox. Thieves have been known to “fish” for keys through letterboxes. This makes their entrance into a home or office much easier and quieter than normal and it is unlikely your insurance company will pay out if there are no signs of a forced entry. Keeping your keys in a draw, cupboard or even a biscuit tin will reduce the risk of them being found by an intruder if your home is broken into.

Take a walk along your street and make a note of which houses look like they have some form of security or more secure doors and windows than others. The ones which look secure are the ones which burglars will walk past. Is your home one of these? Does your home have a visible burglar alarm on the outside wall? Or some form of lighting for the night which will deter potential intruders?

Burglar alarms are one of the best ways to keep your home secure when it is empty and they needn’t cost the earth these days. Alarm systems can be fitted by a professional or some are designed with DIY in mind. DIY intruder alarms are typically wireless meaning no there are no wires trailing around your home and they do not need to be wired into your home electricity circuit. This makes them easy and quick to install. Plus, having a burglar alarm fitted will give you peace of mind when your home or office is unoccupied.

A cheaper alternative to installing a fully working burglar alarm system is to fit an imitation burglar alarm siren box to an outside wall of your home. Just make sure it is visible to passersby and this will make you home look as though it is protected by an alarm system.

Lighting during the night is yet another way of deterring potential intruders as they normally do not want to be seen breaking and entering a building. This can be in the form of a light near the front and back doors of your home, security floodlights which will illuminate a large area of your garden or driveway when someone walks near them, or spotlights which will light up areas of your garden, not only making them look attractive at night, but also keeping away unwanted attention.

And remember, lighting is just as important inside your home as it is outside. At Christmas many of us leave our homes vacant for hours or even days due to families visiting relatives. Therefore when you go out at night, close your curtains or blinds and turn on a light or two around the home to make it look like someone is home. Or for an even more realistic effect, simply add some timer switches to any lights which are plugged into the wall and set them so they turn on and off at different times of the night, making it look like someone is moving around the house. This doesn’t have to happen lots of times in every room, otherwise it will look like someone is running around turning all the lights on and off all night long which is very strange. Try to make this look natural with only a couple of different lights coming on throughout the evening.

If you are going away on vacation or away visiting your family for a few days, ask a friendly neighbour if they wouldn’t mind opening and closing your curtains to make it look as though somebody is at home.

Moving back to Christmas security, always make sure that gifts are kept out of sight so that potential thieves cannot spot them when they walk past your house and peer through your windows. Plus this will also help to keep your presents a surprise from your children or other half. Obviously, there is one place which is pretty much guaranteed to provide someone with gifts. Under the Christmas tree. If you can, don’t put any gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve as the Christmas tree is the first place a burglar will look at this time of year. If you do want to keep a few gifts under the tree, only keep the less valuable ones here. Keep expensive gifts well hidden until the big day.

The last thing you want, is to wake up on Christmas day to find you have been burgled and your children have no presents to unwrap. It does happen, thieves don’t have much in the way of feelings for others and if there is the chance of making a few quid on Christmas Eve they will.

And remember, it’s not just your home which needs to be well protected, but also your car if you are going to leave gifts in it whilst doing some more shopping. Always keep your car locked and arm your car alarm if you have one fitted. Plus, make sure that any gifts or shopping are kept out of sight – put them in the boot, don’t leave them on the back seat.

This short article is not designed to scare you, but simply to remind you to keep safe, keep your home secure and above all, have a very Merry Christmas from all of us at Solar Security Solutions!

Take a look at the length the owner of this garage went to keep his garage and tools safe from thieves. It is an ingenious idea and quite amazing what can be done with a little imagination and some hair clippers.

The representative of Cadbury Heath in Bristol, Councillor Ron Hardie, has said “The Police have told us they have not seen any notable increase in crime. In fact in some areas, there has been a reduction of 20 per cent.” 

We think this reduction in burglary is great. However, we have taken a look at the area which has been affected on the Police.uk website and were surprised to see the figures below since the beginning of the year for the number of burglaries for each month of 2011.

We’ll let you make up your own mind.

Jan: 14

Feb: 9

Mar: 5

Apr: 7

May: 12

June: 14

July: 19

Aug: 16

Sept: 14

Oct: 13

Angie Sowton from London had some very personal possessions stolen from her home which she said had a great deal of sentimental value such as a pair of christening necklaces for both her children. Not only this but some of the childrens Christmas presents had been ripped open, but not taken. The worst part about this burglary is that the items stolen meant a great deal to the family but will probably only get sold by the thief for a few pounds.

The letter was addressed to the “coward burglar” in the hope that they would read it and feel some guilt for what they had done. Even if they had not read it I’m fairly sure they will have read it in the press or seen it on the news. If they have an ounce of decency in their body they will apologise to the family for causing them grief and anger. 

Read more about this story on the BBC News website and remember to always keep expensive or personal possessions well hidden or locked away in a safe.

We all know that anti-social behaviour is a huge nuisance for communities and a great drain on local policing. And when we think of anti-social behaviour we immediately think of groups of unruly teenagers making noise, drinking alcohol and causing trouble.

Because of the problems faced with anti-social behaviour, Lancashire police have made a 2 minute mock video aimed at teenagers to help with their campaign to tackle anti-social behaviour. The Youtube video shows a group of 7 old aged pensioners getting into mischief, drinking and causing trouble in their local neighbourhood, just like teenagers would.

Chief Supt Stuart Williams says that the video “is designed to be creative and thought-provoking whilst getting a very serious message across that actions have consequences”.

Watch the video at www.youtube.com/oldskoolmassive7