Earlier this month, Police announced the arrest five suspected burglars - putting a halt to the high number of house breakings across the Island.

Chief Insp. Andrew Boyce said during September, October and November, the Island was recording 11 and 12 burglaries every day - as opposed to the usual two or three.

But five recent arrests have seen the number of house breakings go back to their usual frequency.

"The number of burglaries was fairly high until about two weeks ago," said Chief Insp. Boyce.

"It's tapered off since then. There were a number of individuals, let's say career criminals, who were very active and we have been able to make some arrests.

"We made at least five significant arrests, and the people we arrested, we believed, were responsible for a significant volume of the crime."

Chief Insp. Boyce said, as usual, jewellery was high on the list of items taken in house breakings - with some homes having more than $30,000 worth of jewellery taken.

And he said some homes had had tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery taken.

Areas hit particularly hard by the thefts were Spanish Point and Middle Road in Southampton.

But Chief Insp. Boyce said although the number of house breakings had decreased in recent weeks, people should still take extra care to ensure their homes were safe and secure.

"We are still getting the odd break-in every day and there are people out there who are opportunists and are still committing crime, so residents should still be careful."

However, David McLeod, Senior Vice president at BF&M Insurance, said he had not noticed a particularly high number of insurance claims relating to house thefts in recent weeks.

He said: "From time to time, we do get a blip, but I would not say it has been out of the ordinary for the yearly forecast.

"We have not noticed a discernible increase in the number of claims."