Crime warning as council contemplates street lights switch-off

Jan 25 2011 By Polly Manser

THE PLANNED switch-off or dimming of lights in some residential areas by Buckinghamshire County Council will cause crime to soar wherever it is dark.

That's the view of a reader who used to associate with criminals and knows how they operate.

The woman, whom we are not naming, used to be in a relationship with a man who, with a group of others, spent much of the night breaking into cars and houses in Buckinghamshire.

She said: "If they switch the street lights off there will be a lot more crime, especially car crime. The criminals go out between 11pm and 4am. With the petrol going up I can see petrol being siphoned, they'll be nicking car tax discs, taking car stereos, and breaking into sheds and garages for tools."

The woman said criminals – some of whom are raising funds to support a drug habit – would always target areas where it was darker.
They would joy ride in the cars they broke into, and they would also break into houses.

The woman got to know the group of criminals after she started going out with one of them at the age of 18.

She never witnessed any thefts or break-ins because they went out on their crime sprees late at night after they had dropped her off at home.
She ended the relationship when it became clear that her boyfriend was not going to mend his ways.

The group were eventually caught and jailed, she said. She said: "The crime rate is going to go up. I know so."