A SERIES of burglaries that has terrified Highworth residents is finally coming to an end, according to police.

An inspector from North Swindon’s community policing team told Highworth Town councillors about the difficulties his team have had in tackling this crimewave.

It involved more than 100 burglaries in Swindon and 14 in Highworth over the past six months in which priceless possessions were stolen from several victims, including Mrs Cheesley as reported previously in the Adver.

Inspector Barry Reed explained at the Town meeting on Tuesday how they found the groups responsible and made arrests to prevent further burglaries.

He said: “It has been a turbulent six months, resources have been tested and we are seeing the cracks of the new model, some of it needs changing but some of it is very good.

“We didn’t foresee the unprecedented large spike in crime caused by a group of young men between the ages of 13 and 19. It’s the worst I’ve seen in 25 years of service.

“It was like chasing our tail, never catching up with the crime trend, but there has been some fantastic work done to catch these people.”

The group of at least 20 young men were linked to the burglaries in January but were difficult to track because the youths were all from different areas of Swindon, including Pinehurst, Penhill, Walcot and Park Hill.

Many of them had been through the criminal justice system several times before, though re-offend rates have fallen.

Mr Reed added: “We noticed a huge change in the number of car key burglaries, where young people were breaking into homes and stealing car keys in order to steal cars.

“That group seems to have fallen out as they are now committing violent offences against each other. I speculate that there are squabbles over what they have stolen.”

At the end of March, local police noticed a different series of burglaries and arrested serial offender Michael Lorraine, who was charged with four burglaries in Highworth and remanded in custody on Tuesday.

One 16-year-old man has also been convicted of eight burglaries with between £250,000 and £300,000 of stolen property.

Mr Reed added: “We probably had three different series of burglaries in Highworth that overlapped, but they’re slowing down and coming to an end now because of the work done by officers.”

There used to be a group of 22 officers dedicated to investigating burglaries but they were reassigned to other serious crimes, such as historical sexual abuse cases and assisting victims of sexual assaults, after the rate of burglaries dropped to an all time low last summer.

Since new policing methods were introduced in November, response times to 999 calls have decreased and police attendance is now 98 per cent, up from 80 per cent.

Inspector Reed’s colleague Lee Wheeldon is holding a surgery at the Podium in Highworth’s High Street on Sunday morning.