Police have assured residents they have burglars locked firmly in their sights ? despite a hike in the number of house break-ins.

New quarterly crime figures show there were 105 home breaks between July and September, compared to 84 for the same period in 2004.

The latest statistics also revealed there were 63 burglaries, compared to 44 in the same spell last year.

Store and office break-ins and other breaking offences have also risen, a Police press conference led by Commissioner Jonathan Smith heard this month.

But Assistant Commissioner Carlton Adams said action had been taken to reverse the trend.

He said several known breaking and entering suspects had been recently arrested, leading to a significant decline in reported incidents.

One, operating in Somerset, was arrested on suspicion of a string of burglaries ? and the number of offences reported in that area had subsequently plummeted.

Another significant arrest had been made in Hamilton, Mr. Adams added.

The arrests come after crime figures revealed there were a total of 287 burglary and break-in-related offences in the third quarter of 2005, bringing the total to 825 so far this year.

There were 850 cases throughout the whole of last year.