IT HAS been a bad year for burglary in the borough.

Now police are hard at work trying to make life bad for the burglars. And with Christmas shopping season at its frenzied height, pickpockets, handbag thieves and shoplifters might feel a hand on their shoulder too.

The message from Hillingdon police is simple: “We want you to have a safe Christmas, not the burglar. We want them to be in custody."

So said Detective Chief Inspector Paul Beetham, during a recent honest appraisal of the borough’s break in numbers at Hillingdon police station in Warwick Place.

“We have had an increase in burglary this year, up 24 per cent, but it is coming down from where it was,” he said.

“It’s a stark message but I want to almost scream it from the rooftops: we know it’s a time [of year] when burglary will go up but please help us by taking better care of your property.”

That means your moveables and your immovables – home security and the security of your purse, wallet and phone are two sides of the same coin, say police.

The reasons for the rise in burglaries are elusive, admits Mr Beetham, the man in charge of the ‘tasking units’ – groups of officers whose job it is to tackle whatever is the crime ‘flavour of the month’, in this case burglars and the individuals who see Christmas shoppers as easy meat.

It could be down to the tough economic climate and unemployment, but there has been plenty of the perennials: unsecured uPVC doors; metal thefts; and ‘drive-aways’, where burglars search for car keys before taking valuables and the vehicle.

In the two weeks to December 4 there were eight car key burglaries out of 102 residential break-ins. Six of those were ‘Asian gold’ related, as highlighted in the Gazette last month when a Hayes’ family was raided.

Fully 50 per cent were burglaries through the rear of the property, and, frustratingly for police, neighbours often say they heard a noise but didn't think anything of it.

“If people are hearing noises like that, give us a ring," Mr Beetham said. “If you hear anything, don't be afraid to give us a ring.”

Officers, he said, would rather come to a false alarm than miss a chance to arrest a burglar because nobody called.

And confrontations with burglares are very rare, your average housebreaker preferring a quick in-and-out.

If they think someone is home they will go elsewhere, so leaving lights on and using timer switches, for example, pays dividends.

Police activity is also paying dividends: in November, 24 alleged burglars were arrested and 19 people have been charged so far.

Complementing the mobile tasking teams, who might be ‘high visibility’ or in ummarked cars and plain clothes, are the town centre teams, who mingle with shoppers both to provide reassurance if uniformed, and swoop on pickpockets and bag thieves if in plain clothes.

In November, there were 23 cases of shoplifitng and 20 pickpocketings or handbag thefts. Three people were arrested.

* Thefts of and from cars in the borough have shot up this year.

There were 1,694 thefts from vehicles between April 1 and October 31, 2011, a rise of nearly 30 per cent on the same period last year.

There was also a 17.3 per cent rise in the theft of cars. The detection rates for both offences also rose.

The figures were disclosed by Chief Inspector Nigel Quantrell at a recent Hillingdon Community and Police Consultative Group meeting.