Edinburgh at top of housebreaking table

Published on 27/01/2013 00:00

HOMEOWNERS in Edinburgh are more likely to be broken into than those living anywhere else in Scotland, according to figures on the number of insurance claims made last year.

The research by Moneysupermarket.com shows the capital tops the housebreaking league, with North Ayrshire and the city of Glasgow in second and third place.

Although government 
figures show that the trend in domestic break-ins in Scotland has been falling over the last decade, the most recent statistics have revealed a rise during the 
recession. Housebreaking went up 7 per cent in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee in the last year.

Moneysupermarket.com analysed 3.5 million home 
insurance quotes across the UK to come up with its figures. They show that 9.9 out of every 1,000 householders in Edinburgh made a claim on their home insurance because of housebreaking.

In North Ayrshire, 9.7 people out of 1,000 reported a break-in, while the next on the list was Glasgow City with 8.9 in 1,000.

Also in the top ten local authorities for housebreaking were East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, and Perth and Kinross.

Rural areas maintained their reputation for low crime, with Aberdeenshire (2.2 per thousand), Angus (2.1 per thousand), Argyll and Clyde (1.4), and Aberdeenshire and Moray (1.2) 
at the bottom of the league table.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: “We are committed to tackling 
acquisitive crime, including business and residential housebreakings.

“Housebreakers are opportunists who will look to 
profit wherever an opportunity presents itself, and properties which are suspected 
of containing large quantities of valuable goods are an 
attractive target.”

Leeds, Bradford and London had the highest rates for burglary in the UK, with homeowners paying an 
average of £30 a year more for living in a high-risk area.

Hannah Jones, home insurance expert for Moneysupermarket.com, said the Scottish figures showed the need to be vigilant.

“Think about it like this: 
if you’ve bought a new flat-screen television, for example, and leave the empty box outside of your property for rubbish collection, you’ve given a green light to any 
opportunistic thieves looking for rich pickings,” she said.