POLICE need to step up patrols to catch burglars in all areas of the town, not just Eldene, according to one Kingshill resident after he says three homes were broken into in the space of a week.

John Olding has lived in the area for a number of years but says the problem has got substantially worse in the last month.

While he welcomes the hands-on approach police are taking to tackle the crime wave elsewhere, the 68-year-old believes the force need to take the same stance on this side of town.

John has noted two burglaries in Dunsford Close and one in Valleyside within the last week.

He said: “Previous to the ones that have happened in the last week, we have had another house robbed because they left the back door open and another family went away for a few days and they came back to find they had been burgled.

“No one seems to know or care because there’s no publicity about it.

“It just seems that people are ringing the police and all they are told is a crime reference number and that’s it.”

In recent weeks police have vowed to increase patrols in Eldene after coming under fire from residents regarding an apparent lack of action following a spate of thefts from cars and homes.

John hopes the force adopts the same attitude in Kingshill.

“People are getting burgled and it would appear that the police’s attitude is that whatever is taken, don’t expect them to try and find it,” he said.

“We’ve had people emptying our garage for two hours while we slept upstairs before now and we were told that we could never get our stuff back.

“The people doing it have even come in front of the camera and waved – they just don’t care.

“The residents here don’t want to set up a vigilante group like other areas.

“We’ve put in security cameras around the place and we feel like even when we have pictures of the people doing it, the police don’t want to know.”

John, a heating engineer, also wants the police to take a more proactive approach to catch rogue tradesmen after he stopped an elderly woman being conned out of £1,000 in Ermin Street.

“You are constantly reminded about not falling victim to scams but more needs to be done to stop people doing it in the first place,” he said.

“These are just two incidents that I feel like the police haven’t covered,” he said.

“I think patrols need to be set up in Kingshill because we are clearly being targeted.

“There are not so many older people here but there is still a lot of burglaries.

“There is an alleyway notorious for drug use so if the police came out on patrol during the evening they would see something.

“This is an ex-council estate so we are not rich, rich people at all. We are all just working to make a living and no one deserves this.”

Wiltshire Police say they were unable to trace a log regarding the Dunsford Close burglaries but a spokesman said: “Wiltshire Police will always respond appropriately to any crime reported to us.

“The issues in Eldene were reported to us, so we responded. This would also be the case in any area of Swindon and Wiltshire.”