Christmas Day burglaries go unsolved as police fail to tackle crime

Families whose homes are broken into this Christmas Day will face double heartbreak after new figures found the number of culprits being caught by police has fallen.

The data, uncovered by a Freedom of Information Act survey, revealed that of those who were burgled on Christmas Day last year, police only managed to charge a suspect in one in 10 cases of the almost 400 logged.

By comparison, a survey examining the figures from three years ago showed that police were solving one in every four Christmas Day break-ins.

It is thought that opportunistic thieves are raiding homes left empty over the festive period or breaking in during the early hours of the morning to search for unopened presents.

Figures from last Christmas Day showed that there were 386 burglaries recorded by detectives, but only 35 of these resulted in the culprit being caught and charged.

The true extent of Dec 25 house raids is potentially even higher, however, as 14 of the nation’s 43 police forces either refused to provide the figures or failed to respond.

Thames Valley, Greater Manchester and Hampshire were among the forces that failed to divulge the number of Christmas Day burglaries occurring in their areas.

The Metropolitan Police, the country’s biggest force, said there were 127 raids on Christmas Day last year, resulting in charges in just eight instances.

It said it had looked into the circumstances of the offence in 96 cases but could not pinpoint a suspect, so halted the investigation after enquiries hit a dead end.

In another 18 cases, officers identified a suspect but were unable to change anyone as the evidence was not strong enough to support a court case. The remaining five incidents are either still being looked into or hit the buffers for other reasons.

Meanwhile, several other forces admitted they had failed to charge a suspect in connection with any of the burglaries they logged on Dec 25 last year.

These included Lancashire (14), Essex (four), Devon and Cornwall (seven), Humberside (10), Leicestershire (nine), North Yorkshire (seven), Surrey (four) and North Wales (two).

Merseyside Police had the best clear-up rate for Christmas Day raids, with eight of their 18 cases going to court.

‘Lives turned upside down and Christmas ruined’

Similar surveys conducted from 2019 to 2021 found that detectives managed to solve one in four raids on Christmas Day but had slightly lower clear-up rates for December as a whole, at one in five.

Kevin Moore, a retired Detective Chief Superintendent from Sussex Police, said: “A burglary of a family home at any time is devastating, however, at Christmas time it always seems worse.

“Hard-working families have often saved for the whole year in order to provide presents for their loved ones, and yet in a matter of minutes, their lives are turned upside down and their Christmas ruined.

“Sadly, today, the likelihood of the police identifying a culprit is far less than it was in my time.

“Detection rates for offences of household burglary used to be around 30 per cent, but those days have gone.

“Less emphasis seems to have been given to acquisitive crime of late by the police due to pressures elsewhere in relation to crimes that were not on the radar years ago.

“Families can do much to protect themselves, however, by not having Christmas gifts on display at times when their houses are empty.”