Residents of an affluent London suburb have called for more protection after a wave of raids blamed on professional criminals.
Householders in just one council ward in Wimbledon have suffered 228 break-ins in 24 months, according to Met police statistics.
The number of burglaries there last year was also 17 per cent higher than in 2018.
Some raids have been carried out by “burglary tourists”, where criminals are flown to the UK.
The Standard reported last week how Chilean thieves raided the £5 million home of chef Marcus Wareing and his wife Jane .
Four men were jailed for three years and four months each.
Burglars also carried out a £500,000 raid on December 27 at the gated property which Crystal Palace footballer Mamadou Sakho rents . Homeowners in the area have demanded more police action.
It also emerged today that another home in the area was hit just weeks after the break-in at Wareing’s house in October.
A source said the burglars had scaled the side of the property before ripping a safe from the master bedroom, stealing jewellery worth thousands of pounds.
“The police said it had all the hallmarks of a Chilean gang break-in,” the source said.
A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed the homeowners had been told the break-in was being linked to Operation Genie, which investigates burglars from Chile.
One victim said: “It’s got beyond a joke, we’re scared to leave our houses.
“It is all very calculated, they spend weeks scoping out our houses and then try to strike when they think nobody is at home. We need better protection.”
Actor Perry Cooke, 22, said: “There’s been lots of burglaries. We decided all of us would chip in to get a security van to go around, from early in the morning to late at night.
“The thing was the police didn’t turn up fast enough, they took 10 minutes, and the burglars had escaped by then, so we thought to deter the burglars we’d get the security van.”
But he added: “You hear about them coming back and doing it twice, which is even scarier.”
The Met said the increase in burglary is a concerning issue that it is tackling urgently.
Detective Inspector Alison Foxwell, from the Met’s South West burglary and robbery investigation team, said: “We are running several proactive operations to target burglars.”
She added that neighbourhood officers were working additional hours and conducting reassurance patrols in areas where burglary is a known issue.
