Manchester student burglaries: Property managers advice on staying safe

Manchester student burglaries: Salford property managers advice on staying safe

Outside of London, Manchester student burglaries take top spot, with 1,000 houses broken into last year alone, with a third as a result of poor security standards.

In the last three years, student’s have lost almost £25 million in possessions to burglars. Items most commonly stolen include: laptop’s, phones and then bicycles according to a new study by Direct Line.

The study also found that each year in the UK 660,000 students fall victim to theft. This equates to just over 1,800 per day which is a real problem. The high volume of thefts can be attributed to the care free nature and lax security standards of students.

Lyn Hollowell manages private student properties in Salford for Thorpe & Co, who have had trouble with student burglaries in the past. She said: “Student’s are vulnerable, because people know when new students are in town and they’ve got their new laptops and their MacBooks and if they aren’t aware of security issues, it’s easy for people to take advantage of them.

“We’ve had cars broken into in the middle of the night, and a student flat that was broken into very early in the morning by somebody posing as a builder who smashed her front door open and ransacked the flat. When he left the property he took part of the door frame with him so if he’d have been stopped or spotted, it would have looked like he was a builder.

“We had it all caught on CCTV, also he was known to Salford police and had broken into properties in the flats above Salford precinct. With our CCTV footage, they were able to pin other events on him and he actually went to prison (for 7.5 years).”

This intruder was later arrested and given a seven-and-a-half-year sentence.

Of the 1,000 Manchester student burglaries, 1 in 3 were as a result of people leaving their doors and windows open or unlocked. So make sure you know your student area, whether it’s Salford or Fallowfield.

This brings about the question, is it safer to live in halls? No (well barely), the study has debunked this theory as there is only a 4% increase in theft in rented accommodation, which shows that security staff do little to deter thieves.

When asked about student tenants relaxed approach to security, Mrs. Hollowell said: “I think, sometimes when you live in a shared house it’s easy just to think someone else will lock the door, or shut it behind you or lock the gate.

“Don’t just assume someone is just going to come in behind you and lock the door.

“Lock your room when you go out, lock your front door, if you’ve got a car, make sure you lock your car, don’t leave any contents: handbags, coats anything visible because if people come round the car parks late at night and see something in there, cars have been broken into in the past. Just be aware of the dangers that can happen to students.”

Shared houses are often targeted because of vast quantity of things to steal. If a break in occurs, the property will then be seen as vulnerable and repeat incidents are a distinct possibility.