TARGETED burglaries on Asian families for high value gold is on the rise according to police.

In the last 12 months in Wiltshire, a total of 47 incidents have been recorded in the county – with three people being arrested in the last six months for burglary offences.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “In Wiltshire, 21 of the 47 burglaries have happened in the last six months.

“Around the time of Diwali, when families are more likely to wear more gold during their cultural festivals, we issued advice to people to keep their valuables in a safe. Here are some more tips on keeping valuables safe:

- Never leave valuables on display

- Fit secure locks and take extra care when locking up

- Make your property looks occupied at all times and use automatic light timers

- Consider installing an alarm as homes with alarms rarely get burgled

- Consider installing external lighting and CCTV

- Place keys out of sight and keep photographic records of all your jewellery. Make sure these are kept in a different place to the valuables themselves.”

In Swindon, police put up safety leaflets around the time of Diwali to encourage people to safely store high value gold after a number of highly-publicised incidents in the last few years.

In 2015, over £200,000 worth of jewellery was stolen from an Asian family in Rushey Platt and only a few months later, a family living in Windsor Road were also targeted.

Chairman of the Swindon Hindu Temple on the Cheney Manor Industrial Estate, Pradeep Bhardwaj, reiterated the police’s advice and believes one solution would be for banks to offer more accessible safety deposit lockers.

“From time to time we have heard stories about burglaries and it is not just jewellery being taken,” he added. “Someone in the community had their house broken into and jewellery as well as the car keys and car were taken.

“The next step is how we can encourage some of the banks to provide locker services which will not only be good for the Asian community to store jewellery but also other members of the community who need to safely store high value items.

“It is a high number of incidents and something needs to change.”

For more security advice visit www.wiltshire.police.uk or call non-emergency number 101.