BURGLARIES in Bury dropped by a crimebusting 50 per cent last month, bucking the trend hitting other police divisions.

In August alone, a traditionally busy period for intruders and sneak thieves, there were 115 break-ins, compared to 229 in August last year.

Latest figures for the borough, from April to August this year, show the overall number of household break-ins had dropped by nearly 25 per cent, down to 689 from 897 in the same period in 2002.

Forcewide, domestic burglaries have risen by 1.2 per cent.

Bury police are also celebrating success in reducing vehicle crime. Since April, the number of thefts from or thefts of cars fell by more than ten per cent to 1,608.

However, robberies increased slightly from 210 to 215 in the corresponding April to August period.

Superintendent Dave Wolfe, deputy commander of Bury police, believes the borough is leading the way in beating burglars and car thieves.

He said: "We are doing exceptionally well with regard to house burglaries, which are rising across Greater Manchester, and vehicle crime, which has seen a forcewide reduction.

"Robbery continues to be targeted and, although we have suffered five more compared with the same period last year, our detection rate has improved."

He continued: "The majority of robberies are personal robberies, where mostly mobile phones and cash are stolen. Although these occur at times all over the borough, they do tend to occur more in the town centre and around the Metrolink stations. Commercial robberies are few in number and these tend to centre around the Prestwich and Whitefield areas."