MORE than 6,700 burglaries were reported to Avon and Somerset Police during 2020 - equivalent to 20 incidents a day.

That sees the area ranked 11th for burglaries when compared to the rest of England and Wales.

That figure - recorded fro January to November 2020 - does, however, represent a fall of 23 per cent when compared to January-November 2019.

The research, conducted by OnlineMortgageAdvisor.co.uk, attributes that fall to the Covid-19 pandemic, with more people than ever before spending significant amounts of time at home, which would seem to have made criminals less optimistic about their chances.

Certainly, the Avon and Somerset figure of 1,630 burglaries between April and June 2020 (the span of the first national lockdown) represents a 33 per cent decrease compared to the same period in 2019.

And Avon and Somerset Police recorded 576 burglaries in November 2020 - when the second lockdown took place - which was a 23 per cent fall from November 2019's figure of 744.

Overall, there were 252,828 incidences of burglary in England and Wales between January and November 2020 - the equivalent of 755 burglaries a day.

During this period, January (31,016) was the worst month, followed by February (28,268), while May saw the lowest number of cases at 18,343.

Compared to 2019, when the total number of burglary cases was 330,455 (January to November 2019), 2020 saw a 24 per cent decrease in burglaries.

Metropolitan Police had the highest number of burglaries between January and November 2020 (56,279, or 168 per day), but this did represent a 23 per cent drop when compared to the same period in 2019.

West Midlands Police (18,115 burglaries) and West Yorkshire Police (14,923) are ranked second and third out of the 41 police forces.