Police on alert after spree of burglaries

Last year there were 277 distraction burglaries and the number for 2007 has already topped 200. The force has now changed its approach to tackling the crime, employing a number of different methods to catch conmen, using advances in forensic science and technology such as number plate readers.

Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Paine said that distraction burglaries were a 'hideous' crime and that officers were doing all they could to stamp it out.

Officers are now linking the three latest burglaries which took place in Chichester, Brighton and Worthing.

In Chichester an 85-year-old woman in Carleton Road was targeted by three conmen. They asked the woman to fill a bowl of water and turn the water off. The men then left and it is unknown if anything was stolen.

At 11.15am a man called at the house of an elderly woman in Greystone Avenue, Worthing, who had just returned from hospital.

The man pretended that there was a problem with the water and asked her to boil some. While she was occupied two other men entered the property and stole money from her handbag.

It is thought that the same men then travelled to Brighton and called at an address in Petworth Road at around 2.30pm where an 85-year-old woman lived.

One of the men asked if he could come in and check her water supply for chlorine and while she was in the kitchen a second man entered the house and stole hundreds of pounds in cash and some silver items.

Anyone with information about distraction burglaries should contact the police on 0845 60 70 999.

In all three burglaries one of the men is white and aged around 19 with a Sussex accent. He is of a medium build, with dark hair and dark/ginger stubble, is 5ft 7 tall and wore a dark grey woollen jacket with zip-up front and Nike symbol and dark trousers.

The other two men are described as white, of a similar age, stockier build and were wearing dark clothing.