Sunbury, Bulla, Clarkefield, and Diggers Rest homes are more likely to be burgled than the average Victorian household is, according to new RACV burglary statistics.
The data reveals Sunbury has also experienced a rise in the number of burglaries, but Hume police dispute this, saying they are seeing a reduction.
RACV Victorian burglary statistics put Sunbury’s burglary rate at higher than the state average, with one burglary for every 63 homes in the 2016-17 financial year, compared to the Victorian average of one in 69 homes.
The figures show Sunbury’s burglary risk has increased – last year the town’s risk was below average with one in 72 homes being burgled.
But Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Karp said the Hume Crime Investigation Unit was seeing an overall decline in burglaries in Sunbury.
He said the unit had recorded 84 burglaries in Sunbury by December 7 last year, compared to 63 burglaries at December 7 this year.
“In October, we had only eight burglaries,” he said. Fourteen burglaries were recorded for the town in November, and 15 were recorded in the first week of December.
Senior Sergeant Karp said the rate of robberies went through spikes, but police were pleased with the overall trend.
RACV data revealed Diggers Rest to be No.7 on greater Melbourne’s burglary hotspot list, with one in 32 homes being burgled in 2016-17. Even though the rate has improved from one in 23 houses in 2015-16, the rate is more than double Victoria’s average.
One in 24 homes were robbed in Bulla last year, and one in 18 in Clarkefield, RACV data shows.
But both towns have less than 250 residences, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s 2016 Census.
While Mount Macedon had an average number of robberies, at one in 69, Lancefield was well below average at one in 249, Kyneton had one in 199 and Gisborne experienced one in 173.
The RACV said its data was compiled using data from bodies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Crime Statistics Agency.
