NSW 10 worst suburbs for break-ins, intruders named | Full list
From a young man wielding a sword to a thief stealing $10,000 in hats, these are the offenders in the NSW suburbs with the most break in and enters. See the list.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
From a security guard who broke into the offices he was hired to protect, to a bloody break in by a former housemate, these break and enter offenders have helped their suburb achieve a rank in the top ten NSW areas with the highest break in rates.
Despite the alarming crimes, data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows break and enter crimes have dropped 16.6 per cent in the past two years.
A deep dive into the data for each suburb shows some areas have experienced a bigger decline than others, as in the case of Blacktown, while the break in rate has actually increased in others, such as Tamworth.
Find out if your suburb has made the list of the 10 suburbs with the highest rate of break ins.
Newcastle
The NSW area with the highest rate of break and enter crime is Newcastle, with 858 break ins reported in the past year from June 2020 to 2021. The good news is the rate of break ins has dropped from the 934 break ins reported in the previous year.
As a region, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie came in second with 1850 reported break and enter crimes in the last year.
Despite the high rate of break and enter crimes, residents will remember the shocking home invasion in which a woman died when an intruder who was “acting mental” tried to steal some cannabis plants from her neighbours.
The court was told Catherine Ann Howard’s neighbours, a 37-year-old woman and her 59-year-old mother with whom she was friendly, said she had been “acting mental” in the week leading up to the offence.
The court heard in September last year Howard broke into her neighbours’ home in the middle of the night after yelling outside and demanding the return of cannabis plants she’d given them. The 37-year-old neighbour woke to sounds of smashing in the apartment and realised Howard was inside.
The commotion caused the woman’s 59-year-old mother to suffer a seizure and she collapsed, unable to be revived by paramedics. Howard was not charged with the woman’s death.
The court heard Howard was in the middle of a “manic episode” at the time, which was exacerbated by her cannabis use.
Ms Howard was convicted of aggravated break and enter to commit a serious indictable offence and sentenced to a two year community corrections order with 100 hours of community service.
Read more here.
Blacktown
Narrowly missing out on the top spot by only three reported crimes, Sydney’s Blacktown ranks second in the NSW areas with the highest rate of home invasions. In the year from June 2020 to 2021, Blacktown recorded 855 break and enter crimes. The number represents a massive decrease from the previous year’s total of 1132 recorded break ins.
Greater Sydney had the highest number of recorded break and enter offences over the past year with 12,090 reported break ins – more than six and a half times more than the next statistical area.
Blacktown’s Shivam Dhingra decided to resort to crime when he posed as a food delivery driver to break into two leading law firms and steal 16 laptops.
Dhingra was employed as a security officer for Sydney’s MLC Centre when he reprogrammed access cards to break into two secure levels of the building. In the two offences, committed when he was aged 20 and 21, he used the access cards to steal 16 laptops valued at $32,500.
He was caught on CCTV modifying the cards and later tried to sell the laptops. The court heard he wore dark clothing and a food delivery backpack as a disguise while he shifted the laptops out of the law offices.
Dhingra pleaded guilty to two charges of breaking and entering. After an appeal, he had his sentence reduced to a 30-month intensive corrections order due to his youth. Dhingra is ordered to pay $41,000 in compensation to the victim.
Read more here.
Central Coast
The third highest rate of break and enter crime is found on the NSW Central Coast, which recorded 744 home invasions in the year from June 2020 to 2021. The region recorded a commendable drop in the numbers from the previous year, which totalled 914 reported break ins.
Despite the decline in break ins, a conviction was handed down this year for a terrifying 2018 home invasion in Charmhaven during which the intruders threatened to kill a neighbour’s dog.
The break and enter was sparked by an incident in which the neighbour’s dog fatally injured a dog belonging to a friend of former navy clearance diver Jarrad Leslie Bridge. The friend and Bridge entered the neighbours’ property on December 17 and threatened to kill their dog in retaliation.
The court heard Bridge’s friend shoved an elderly man and then pushed the victim so he fell back onto the toilet bowl, and punched him several times in the face.
Despite the lack of physical contact between Bridge and the victim, Judge Tanya Bright determined “he was there and willing to help if called upon”.
Bridge was convicted of break and entering with intent to cause intimidation and common assault and sentenced to nine months in jail. His friend was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order.
Read more here.
Penrith
Coming in at number four is western Sydney suburb Penrith, which recorded 660 break ins in the year from June 2020 to 2021. The number is a noticeable drop from the previous year’s rate of 703 break and enter crimes.
One of the most notable crimes in the area was a “run through” of a former friend’s house in which one man had a baseball bat and another was wielding a sword.
Oliver Galea and Jesse Souter broke into the victim’s house just before 10.30pm on March 4 last year. Souter was carrying a bat, which he swung at a fence, and Galea swung his fist at the victim but missed.
Galea then grabbed a metal sword belonging to the victim and was captured on CCTV stuffing the victim’s belongings in his pockets.
The victim fled and returned to find medication, nine pairs of Nike shoes and three Mark Echo branded watches had been stolen.
The pair pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter and Galea also pleaded guilty to intentionally destroying property and resisting police. Both men were convicted and sentenced to two years in jail.
Read more here.
Parramatta
Ranking as the state’s fifth highest rate of break and enter crimes, the suburb of Parramatta recorded 644 home invasions in the year from June 2020 to 2021. The number represents a massive decline by more than 200 break ins from the previous year, which had recorded 849 incidents.
Despite the decline, break and enter crime was at the forefront of the public imagination earlier this year after a spate of break ins. During the Easter holidays in April, police reported three primary schools and one high school in Winston Hills and Baulkham Hills were targeted.
According to police, five young people were seen running from the campus of Model Farms High School in Baulkham Hills after multiple alarms were triggered at around 3am on April 19.
Police suspect the perpetrators are local because of the proximity of the targeted schools, some of which were broken into multiple times.
Read more here.
Tamworth
The north eastern NSW regional town of Tamworth comes in at six on our list of NSW localities with high rates of break and enter crime. The town had 612 break ins over the year from June 2020 to 2021. Tamworth bucked the downward trend of home invasion crime with this large increase on the 439 break ins in the previous year.
As a region, New England had the third highest number of recorded break and enter crimes over the past year, with 1671 criminal incidents in total.
However, the high rank wasn’t enough for Tamworth man Christopher Wayne Fullerton, who exported the crime to Scone.
On October 27 of last year, Fullerton smashed the glass of a Marsh Carney Saddlery and took 103 expensive “country and cowboy” style hats. Police estimated the stolen hats were worth nearly $10,000.
CCTV showed Fullerton fleeing from the store with a stolen red wheelie bin and he was identified by a smear of blood he left on the broken glass.
He pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and was sentenced to a 14-month intensive corrections order.
Read more here.
Canterbury Bankstown
The Canterbury Bankstown area of south western Sydney has the seventh highest break and enter rate in the state with 576 reported crimes from June 2020 to 2021. This year the area experienced a sizeable decline in home invasions, which were down from 713 reported incidents the previous year.
However the decline may not be appreciated by the victims of a shocking home invasion in Bankstown earlier this year, which left two men in hospital.
The two men were at their home on the evening of July 13 when three strangers burst through the backyard, wearing high visibility vests and surgical masks.
The armed men used cable ties to bind the residents and then assaulted them, demanding money.
The three invaders then ransacked the house before jumping the fence and driving off in a black Mazda. Both of the victims were taken to Bankstown Hospital and treated for minor injuries.
Read more here.
Cumberland
In the year from June 2020 to 2021, western Sydney’s Cumberland area had 567 reported break and enter crimes. The crime rate for home invasions in the area dropped from 609 incidents the previous year.
One of the most terrifying home invasions in recent memory in the area involved an aggravated home invasion in the middle of the night in April 2019.
According to NSW Police, a 31-year-old woman and her 4-year-old son were threatened by four hooded men who broke into their Guildford apartment.
The woman was woken by the sound of the men breaking into the apartment and confronted then invaders. According to the woman, one of the men brandished a knife at her and demanded money before the men looted the apartment and stole the television.
No one was injured and police were unable to locate the offenders.
Read more here.
Liverpool
Liverpool recorded the ninth largest break and enter crime rate over the past year, with 560 reported incidents. In keeping with the statewide reduction in break ins, the number represents a decline from 629 incidents in the previous year.
One of the most prominent home invasions involved a young woman who decided to break into her old home after being asked to leave.
Kristen Moriarty claimed she only wanted to collect her clothes from the home when she and Scott Keighran armed themselves with knives and covered their faces with balaclavas. The pair broke into the Bringelly home at 11pm on July 16, 2018, while Moriarty’s previous housemates were inside.
Keighran walked outside with one of the housemates and proceeded to stab him once in the back and twice in the stomach. Keighran then reappeared in the other housemate’s bedroom to punch the woman in the face repeatedly.
Keighran then slashed the victim’s throat with his knife, leaving a 10cm long laceration. He was shot in the arm as he fled the scene with Moriarty and crashed his ute later that night.
For wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and reckless wounding in company, Keighran was sentenced to seven years and three months jail. Moriarty was sentenced to three years and one month in jail for two counts of reckless wounding and aggravated enter dwelling.
Read more here.
Wollongong
Coming in at number 10 is coastal city Wollongong, which had 546 reported home invasions in the year from June 2020 to 2021. The number is down from 588 break ins the previous year. For context, the entire Illawarra region recorded a total of 1,030 break and enter crimes over a year.
A recent case which shook the city was a violent daylight burglary by four teenagers armed with knives and a baseball bat. Tyson Komainadravusa, Cayden Collis, Vettori Dargin and Justin Hanslow covered their faces with balaclavas before they broke into a Figtree home at 3pm on July 27 last year.
The foursome were apparently looking for cannabis, a gaming laptop, and a playstation. The court heard Komainadravusa was armed with a knife, Collis held a baseball bat, and Dargin wielded a kitchen knife.
According to police facts, the teens entered the house and Komainadravusa grabbed the victim by the neck and pointed a knife at him as he pushed the victim towards the bedroom and demanded “where’s all the s***”.
While he held the victim, the other teens ransacked the room and stole $900 worth of cannabis, an x-box, a Gucci bag, and a Louis Vuitton glasses case. Dargin then punched the victim in the face before the teens took off in Collis’ car.
All of the offenders were convicted of robbery in company. Komainadravusa, Dargin and Hanslow were jailed for two years and six months with a non-parole period of one year. Collis avoided full time jail and was sentenced to intensive corrections order of two years and six months.
Read more here.
More Coverage
Man charged over murder of baby boy remains behind bars
A 20-year-old man will remain behind bars on remand after he was charged over the murder of a baby boy, who died in a hospital in the Hunter region after suffering critical injuries.
Camper charged after ‘stabbing attack’ in cemetery
A man who was camping at a cemetery in Sydney’s west has been charged over allegedly stabbing a 30-year-old man as he walked through the area with two friends.