DETECTIVES in Darlington have warned criminals they are in their best burglary-beating form for five years, despite a 43 per cent rise in break-ins.

Since April 1 there have been 509 burglaries, compared with 354 in the same period in 2000, said Detective Chief Inspector Ian McDonald.

But he said the detection rate, which has seen one person charged or cautioned for one in every four such crimes, was "the highest rate we have achieved in Darlington for a number of years".

Det Chief Insp McDonald warned there would be no let- up as a force-wide initiative to stem the increase, called Operation Bullseye, starts this week.

A team of 20 officers in Darlington are concentrating on house burglaries, with help from uniformed colleagues, scientific support officers, fingerprint experts and Darlington Borough Council's community wardens.

"If people out there want to go and make someone's life a misery at Christmas, we are going to go out there and make their lives a misery," he said. "Some poor family during the next two to three weeks will lose their Christmas presents.

"It is heartbreaking for the youngsters, particularly in a situation like that," he said.

High-visibility patrols are operating in known crime hot-spots and police have increased monitoring of offenders who are on curfews.

Det Chief Insp McDonald said there were a number of reasons for the rise in burglaries, not least the success in previous years of police having prolific offenders locked up.

A number of these people had been released from prison back into the community during the past year, said Det Chief Insp McDonald.

The Government had warned in the past of worries there would be a national rise in crime this year, due to "demographic reasons".

Operation Bullseye was launched on Monday.

It will involve all 1,100 frontline officers in Durham Constabulary, with the support of Darlington Borough Council's neighbourhood wardens.