Burgle Britain

Britain has the best burglars in Europe, according to a study by the European Union, which also finds that the country is the continent’s second most crime-ridden. The research found that break-ins here are more likely to be successful than anywhere else, even though householders are also the most likely to have burglar alarms.

The ease with which burglars get around security measures helps Britain to top the EU’s league table for burglaries, with twice the average rate. Overall, 21% of people fell victim to crime in one year, a rate surpassed only by Ireland.

The authors of the research, a draft of which was unintentionally released last week, conclude: “Levels of crime have been declining in the United Kingdom since 1995 but not to the extent as in some other EU countries. The UK remains a high crime country.”

The researchers said this weekend that the Home Office was so worried about how badly Britain came out of the study that it had demanded early warning from Brussels before publication.

“There was a politically motivated fear [among] civil servants because of what ministers would say,” said Robert Manchin, chairman of Gallup Europe, which conducted the research in conjunction with the European commission.

The study was based on interviews with 28,000 people in 18 countries from both western and eastern Europe, including 3,600 from Britain. The researchers found that in 2004, 3.3% of respondents in Britain had been burgled, compared with an EU average of 1.7%.

In addition, 1.8% had had their car stolen and 5.4% had been assaulted or threatened — also the highest in the EU. Britons are also more likely than other EU citizens to fit security measures at home, with 36% of respondents having burglar alarms.

The researchers asked whether they had been the victim of either a successful or a failed burglary in 2004.

The results showed that in countries with high burglar alarm ownership, a high proportion of break-ins failed.

Except in Britain. “A clear outlier in the relationship is the United Kingdom,” the study notes. “[It has] the highest rates of burglar alarms and a moderately low proportion of failed burglaries.”