Home Security is of vital importance, but this aspect is often overlooked as many of us believe we will not become a victim of such a prolific crime. Unfortunately this belief is often misplaced.

Tip 1: Many thieves are opportunist and many burglaries are not planned. One way to deter opportunistic thieves is by keeping any valuable items out of site. You can do this in a number of ways which include;

• Obscuring people from seeing inside of your home with curtains or blinds.
• Keeping your garden clean and tidy with anything of value stored away. 
• Placing any valuable items such as jewelry in a safe, out of sight. 

Tip 2: Burglars tend to target properties which are unoccupied, primarily due to the decreased chance of being catch red handed. So it would make sense to make it seem like your property is occupied even if it is not, you can do this in a number of ways which include:

• Plug timers, to turn on appliances such as TV’s radios and lamps  during the day and night or whenever your home is empty. 
• Smart bulbs can be remotely controlled from your phone to turn on and off or set to a schedule, this is a great idea during the night. 
• If you are away for an extended period ensure you discontinue all deliveries and use Royal Mails keep safe service to withhold your mail. 

Tip 3: Approximately 70% of burglars gain entry by using your doors. By upgrading the security of your doors you dramatically reduce the likelihood of a break in. You can do this by: 

• Ensuring your door is fitted with a British Standard lock, these types of locks have been built to a higher standard when compared to your average lock and can withstand picking, bumping, snapping and a range of other commonly used techniques for a longer duration of time. 
• Ensure you double lock your door with your key, by doing so you again stop criminals from using a variety of commonly used bypassing techniques such as hooking and sliding. 
• Door accessories such as letter cages, door chains, London and Birmingham bars can help increase your doors overall security. 

Tip 5: Do you have an idea of what level of security your lock offers? Most people don’t, but it is usually very easy to tell. Lookout for the British kite mark , if your lock has the kite mark  located on the locks faceplate this means the lock has been manufactured to a certain standard making it harder to bypass. Also look out for the number of stars. The most stars possible is 3 and this means the lock is high security while a 1 star lock is rated a medium security. No stars means a a basic security level. 

Tip 6: On wooden doors it is standard to have 2 locks. The top lock is usually a night latch while the lock lower lock is commonly a deadlock. Many people typically never use the deadlock and solely rely on the night latch. This is a big mistake and leaves your door vulnerable to a number of techniques criminals use to bypass wooden doors. By simply engaging your deadlock you can prevent many of these technique while also greatly enhancing your doors force resistance. 

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