ONE of the biggest anti-burglary campaigns to take place on Teesside will be launched this week.

The Safer Hartlepool Partnership is leading the drive in the town with the backing of a promotional character, Willie Walkin.

Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond, who is also chairman of the partnership, will launch the campaign at noon on Friday in the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre.

The campaign has two main aims - to raise awareness of the threat posed by sneak-in burglars and to offer householders free practical advice to secure their homes.

Mr Drummond said: "Statistics show that walk-in burglaries account for nearly 40 per cent of all break-ins that occur in the town, so this campaign has the potential to really make an impact.

"The partnership is always looking for new and innovative ways of getting across the crime-prevention message, and we feel that the use of the Willie Walkin character is an eye-catching way of focusing people's minds on what is a very serious issue."

Gerry McBride, a project manager with the partnership, said: "It's important that people don't become complacent about security, even when they are in their homes. It can take just seconds for a determined burglar to sneak in and steal property.

"A householder may have, for example, just come in from the supermarket and be in the kitchen putting away the shopping. A handbag may have been left on a chair in the lounge, or hanging from the staircase in the hall, and this would represent easy pickings for any intruder."

Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Lang, Hartlepool Police crime manager, said: "I would like to appeal to everyone to make sure their homes cannot be targeted by walk-in thieves. The more work a would-be intruder has to do to get into a house, the less likely they are to break in."

The partnership will also be in the shopping centre on Saturday and Sunday to give advice and hand out leaflets.