45 chronic burglars and influencers of crime in sights of Victoria police

New Victoria Police intelligence reveals 45 chronic burglars and influencers of crime are driving significant offending across Melbourne.

These 45 people have connections with almost 2,000 known burglars and car thieves in Victoria and are firmly in the sights of police given their extreme offending habits and the influence they wield in criminal circles.

25 of them are currently in custody, while the remaining 20 are under close police watch.

Each of these people are under the age of 25, with 65% under the age of 18.

In addition to proactively monitoring and targeting these individuals, Victoria Police continues to run Operation Trinity across Melbourne’s eastern and south-eastern suburbs each night.

Over the past year, this had led to almost 1,700 arrests – almost five burglars and car thieves every day.

Just this month, Operation Trinity units have pulled over more than 3,500 cars in an attempt to prevent offending, while over 100 stolen cars have also been recovered.

Victoria Police continues to investigate a number of confrontational aggravated burglaries in Melbourne this week.

Southern Metropolitan Regional Crime Squad detectives are investigating two likely linked incidents in Brighton East and Clyde in the early hours of Monday morning.

At 1.30am on Monday 27 October, two masked males armed with a knife forced entry into a Brighton East home, before they were interrupted by a 76-year-old woman who was home. Demands were made for her car keys, before another person home at the time intervened and the offenders fled in a white Toyota Prado.

Shortly afterwards at 2.50am in Clyde, there was another attempted home invasion where offenders attempted to break in, before being disturbed by occupants of the home and fleeing towards a vehicle. The offenders, armed with knives, then chased occupants back into the property before fleeing in a white Toyota Prado.

Investigations into these incidents have already progressed significantly, with several avenues being explored.

In an unrelated incident on Wednesday morning, two male offenders, armed with a hammer and a baseball bat, smashed their way through a glass window panel on a Camberwell home before entering the premises. The occupants awoke to the noise and found an offender in their living room. The offender demanded the car keys, before taking them and fleeing through the window. The two offenders fled in the victim’s white Jeep Cherokee. The investigation remains ongoing into this matter.

While there weren’t arrests made on the night, in all three cases, police were dispatched in under a minute and arrived at the scene within a matter of minutes.

For example, twelve police units converged on the scene of the Camberwell incident within six minutes.

In addition to these incidents, two police officers were also injured while responding to an aggravated burglary in Sandhurst earlier this morning. Two male offenders in a white Ford Ranger allegedly rammed the police vehicle, as the officers on patrol observed two males running from a residence around 1am, which has since been confirmed as the victim of an aggravated burglary.

A senior constable from Southern Metro Region was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening-injuries and an acting sergeant from Southern Metro Region, suffered minor injuries. The police car sustained significant damage to both the front and driver’s side. No arrests have been made and investigations into the incident remain ongoing.

Anyone with information about these incidents is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

Quotes attributable to Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Bob Hill:

“Melbourne has seen some truly horrible incidents this week, with three homes invaded by offenders armed with weapons in Brighton East, Camberwell, and Clyde.

“These incidents have rightly disturbed the Victorian community and despite 40-plus years in policing, it still shocks me that anyone thinks it’s acceptable to threaten another person with a knife in their own home or smash down their front door in the middle of the night.

“While our intel continues to show that almost 99% of aggravated burglaries have no physical violence, one of these experiences is too many.

“Your home should be your castle and the sad reality for those impacted by these incidents is this will no longer feel like it’s the case.

“Overnight we also had two police officers injured while responding to an aggravated burglary, after they were rammed in a stolen car.

“None of this is acceptable, and Victoria Police is doing everything possible to ensure people are not only are safe in their homes but also feel safe.

“From dusk to dawn every night, frontline police and specialist units such as the Public Order Response Team and Dog Squad are swarming Melbourne’s suburbs targeting home burglars and car thieves as part of Operation Trinity while the Air Wing watches from above.

“This has been the most well-resourced policing operation in Victoria over the past two and a half years – highlighting the severity of this offending.

“Outside of Operation Trinity, we are also proactively monitoring and targeting Victoria’s worst burglars.

“We know there are 45 chronic offenders or people who influence others to break into homes that are firmly in our sights.

“In the immediate term, our officers are up to the challenge and will continue to work tirelessly every single night to ensure our community is as safe as possible.

“Victoria Police also recently announced a raft of broader changes aimed at preventing offending moving into the future."

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