Thirty burglaries a day reported to South Yorkshire Police

Last year, a total of 10,953 break-ins were reported, with 7,833 homes and 3,120 business or community buildings broken into.

The figure is down 26 per cent on the previous year, when 14,827 burglaries were logged.

OnlineMortgageAdvisor.co.uk found that that there were 252,828 burglaries recorded by 41 police forces across England and Wales between January and November 2020 compared to 330,455 the year before.

The firm claims the Covid-19 pandemic played a part in the reduction.

“With more people than ever before spending significant amounts of time at home, it likely made criminals less optimistic about their chances,” the company said.

Detective Chief Inspector Jamie Henderson, South Yorkshire Police’s force lead for burglary, said: “I agree that reductions in burglary could be down to more people being at home, so there are less opportunities for burglars to target unoccupied homes.

“However, we have also seen a reduction in burglaries at business and community premises, some of these buildings are unoccupied at the moment due to the ongoing Covid regulations and many more people working from home so this is really reassuring to see.

“We understand how distressing it is to be a victim of a burglary so we are continuing to do all we can to tackle burglaries across South Yorkshire.

“We have targeted patrols, utilising neighbourhood teams to increase patrols in areas where a burglary has been reported. We have forensically marked over 7,000 properties across South Yorkshire with smart water as part of Operation Shield, and have launched the ‘don’t buy crime portal’, which encourages places to check for smart water before they buy any items from people. This enables us to recover stolen property quickly and return it to the owner.

“We also work closely with offender management teams focusing on outstanding suspects and previous offenders to look at ways to prevent re-offending.

“We will continue to work with partner agencies and do all we can to prevent burglaries. There are a number of ways that residents and business owners can help to protect their belongings.”