A new CCTV camera and security schemes have been launched on an industrial estate in Penrith after a string of organised burglaries.

 The Gilwilly Industrial Estate has been targeted by burglars from outside the county who have used a variety of sophisticated means to break into warehouses and steal goods.

These have included raids at Lloyds, in Myers Lane, and Lowry’s Cash and Carry, among others. In one incident, raiders used sledgehammers to beat down the back wall of one building, using knowledge of the warehouse’s layout to gain entry.

Now Penrith’s neighbourhood policing unit has used money from the Eden Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership to install a mobile CCTV camera on the estate in the lead up to Christmas.

Sergeant Adrian Hill, from the Penrith team, said that similar problems tend to arise during the Christmas period, along with ‘curtain slashers’ who cut open high-sided HGVs to steal the goods inside.

“It is a recurring trend by people who are not local to the area,” he said.

“They are obviously quite organised, as in one raid they came very well equipped with a lorry and lifted the things over a fence, possibly with something like a forklift truck.

“We do see an increase in commercial crime with the run-up to Christmas.”

The cameras have previously been deployed elsewhere in town, in Castletown, where they were used to clamp down on a spate of criminal damage, and in St Andrew’s Churchyard in the town centre where anti-social behaviour was causing problems for local businesses.

The camera will be run alongside the ongoing Business Watch scheme, which encourages businesses to work together to share information and identify suspicious activity.