Brentford 'London's Worst' for Burglary

But local police dismiss survey by financial website

Local police officers have reacted scornfully to research by a financial web site which suggests that Brentford is the worst place London and fifth worst in the country for burglaries.

The survey by moneysupermarket.com says that almost 6% of policy holders in the Brentford area made a claim for theft or burglary on their contents insurance in the last 12 months.

Seven out of the top 20 post codes in the survey were from the Greater London area with Doncaster seeing the highest level of claims in the country.

Peter Gerrard, head of insurance research at moneysupermarket.com said: "Unfortunately I'm not amazed to see several London postcodes in the top 20 when it comes to theft and burglary, but I didn't expect to see Doncaster and Bristol snatching the top spots from London – especially as their reputations for crime are no rival for the capital. It proves any area, regardless of reputation, can be classed as 'high-risk'."

Supt Simon Phipps dismissed the results of the survey as 'utter nonsense' and said if insurers were getting that many claims then they had a serious problem with fraud. He added that Brentford wasn't the worst area in the borough let alone London as places like Heston and Cranford much harder hit.

November 7, 2008