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Con men's trade on the
elderly
An underworld
trade exists between criminals who prey on vulnerable elderly people in
distraction burglaries, police have revealed.
The addresses
of elderly residents known to hold large amounts of cash in their homes
are sold between thieves. Officers
involved in an operation to combat burglaries across the West country said
there was evidence of a "shopping list" of lucrative addresses,
which is sold amongst criminals. Part of
Operation Litotes, run by detectives from Devon and Cornwall, Dorset,
Wiltshire and Gloucestershire involves getting people to protect
themselves against bogus callers. Detective
Sergeant Paul Bean, second in command of the operation, told BBC News
Online that elderly people were often "softened-up" by workers
who carry out odd-jobs at their homes. "A
vulnerable elderly person usually pays over the odds for getting the trees
cut or tarmacing the drive. "If they
pay in cash, that address becomes known as the home of a vulnerable person
who has cash in their house. "Knowledge
of those addresses are passed on to distraction burglars," he said. Police
intelligence has shown that particular addresses are targeted by
travelling gangs. "There
have been cases of people travelling 400 miles to commit a distraction
burglary at a specific address. Con men
"They
have got to have a shopping list of addresses to travel that
distance," he said. Distraction
burglaries are often repeated after information about prime addresses are
sold between criminals, he said. Nearly a
quarter of homes which are burgled by bogus callers are visited again by
con men within 18 months. About 1,000
distraction burglaries are reported each year across the six counties
involved in the operation. Improve
security Det Sgt Bean
said the money paid for the information depends on the amount of cash
thought to be held in the house. "If
someone does a burglary at a house and gets a couple of hundred pounds,
how much are you going to pay for that?" he said. "If they
get a couple of thousand pounds they are going to pay a lot more for that
information." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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