Extra police officers have been deployed to the area to target key burglary suspects following a spike in break ins. 

Braintree district commander Chief Insp Nick Lee said his officers had delivered a stopping blow to the spate of burglaries across the Halstead area.

He has deployed extra officers and PCSOs to patrol hotspots and used a number of undercover tactics to thwart further burglaries.

He said: “We have had an operation running in Halstead to try and combat this and we have been reasonably successful trying to prevent further dwelling burglaries.

“We have been committing a significant number of additional police officers and PCSOs to patrol areas that have been targeted.

“We have also been actively developing intelligence around a number of key individuals who we believe may be involved in these crimes.”

He said there was a spike in house burglaries in the first two weeks of November but in the past 10 days this has dropped to just three across the Halstead area.