Crime in your ‘hood: Where burglars and car thieves live and work on the north shore

BURGLARS may like to ply their trade on the north shore but not many of them live there according to new data. See how your suburb rates with our INTERACTIVE MAPS.

A man accused of an East Killara home invasion is escorted into court.

BURGLARS may like to ply their trade on the north shore but not many of them live there.

Exclusive data released to Newslocal by the NSW Bureau of Crime statistics and Research (BOCSAR) shows that over the past six years 23 burglars called St Leonards home — the most of any suburb north of the bridge.

But statewide St Leonards was way down the list of suburbs where alleged offenders or persons of interest (POIs) reside. POIs may not have been convicted in court, however they have been proceeded against by the police. It ranked only 272nd.

The suburbs break and enter POIs called home most often were: Waterloo, Redfern, Macquarie Fields, Airds and Bidwill, with Glebe topping the list for POIs in 2016 with 38 offenders.

In some areas reports of home break-ins smash past a hundred while zero locals are implicated.

On the north shore, the suburbs of Killara and East Killara reported 383 break-ins with zero POIs between 2011 and March 2017.

Police lead a juvenile offender into court after a three-week crime spree, including a robbery at Killara Motor Inn and a home invasion in Lindfield.

BREAK-INS 2011 TO MARCH 2017 MAP:

Mosman topped the list of local burglaries since 2011 with 507 followed by Chatswood’s 364.

From 2011 to March 2017 there were more than a thousand break-ins to dwellings in each of Blacktown, Liverpool, Parramatta and Strathfield but none of these places ranked in the top 20 home suburbs for offenders or suspects.

Ex-president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (2012-2016) Professor Rick Sarre of the University of SA said the decline in property crime is due to a few factors but it’s not spread equally.

“We know criminals target homes that don’t have security alarms but that means the rich can get protection and the poor don’t,” Prof Sarre said.

Car thefts followed a similar pattern where some western Sydney suburbs saw hundreds of cars boosted, many of them Holden Commodores. Stealing from cars was also a western Sydney specialty with some places suffering more than a thousand thefts in the six years to March 2017.

Half of all cars are stolen from a home, and Holden Commodores made up five of the top 10 most stolen car models according to the National motor vehicle theft reduction council.

The top suburbs cars were pinched from were Bankstown, Blacktown, Liverpool, Penrith, Auburn and Greenacre. The top suburbs for car thief POIs were Marrickville, Blacktown, Glebe, Guildford, and Whalan.

CCTV footage from home captures the moment a thief tries to steal a car.

CAR THEFT 2011 TO MARCH 2017 MAPS:

Three quarters of car thefts are short term and used for transport, joy-riding or committing other crimes, the National motor vehicle theft reduction council reports.

Prof Sarre said car thefts are down about 75 per cent over the past 20 years as the only way to steal a car these days is to break into a home to the steal keys.

“While immobilisers are typically built into cars after 2001, they offer no protection if a thief has access to your keys,” Prof Sarre said.

The most common crime reported to NSW Police between 2011 and March 2017 was malicious damage (vandalism), stealing from cars and fraud.

The top Sydney suburbs where thieves broke into cars were: Blacktown (2575 reports), Liverpool (2395), Surry Hills (1975), Bankstown (1792), Campbelltown (1526) and Mount Druitt (1495).

The top Sydney suburbs where POIs that steal from cars live during the same period were: Waterloo, Redfern, Marrickville, Surry Hills and West Pymble.

MALICIOUS DAMAGE 2011 TO MARCH 2017 MAPS:

Shoplifting reports between 2011 and March 2017 centred around large shopping complexes in Sydney, Parramatta, Blacktown, Liverpool, Bondi Junction.

The most POIs for this crime were living in Surry Hills (710), Blacktown (637), Redfern (598), Macquarie Fields (524), and Waterloo (524).

Criminologist and Senior Lecturer at Sydney University Dr Garner Clancey said criminals “generally” stay close to home and hit targets they know when doing their worst.

This BP Petrol station on Yanko Road at West Pymble was robbed in 2012 and the attendant was taken to hospital.

“The journey to crime data suggests offenders travel quite short distances, only a couple of kilometres and tend to offend in areas they know . because they have an understanding of likely chances to be caught,” Dr Clancey said.

The top Sydney suburbs for vandalism reports were: Blacktown, Sydney, Penrith, Parramatta and Campbelltown, while the top suburbs that vandal POIs called home were: Blacktown, Surry Hills, Doonside, Macquarie Fields and Liverpool.

The BOCSAR data attributes some POIs to suburbs if they were living in local jails, so the numbers for areas such as Silverwater and Goulburn are inflated and excluded from the above analysis. ​