Housebreaking

Yes it is. Housebreaking is an aggravation of theft where a person enters a building or part of a building without permission and proceeds to steal property from within. For many people this means that someone has entered your house without permission and stolen property from inside your house.

The whole body does not have to enter the house, so if someone puts their arm through the letterbox and steal keys for example, this is a classed as a Housebreaking

Examples of housebreaking:

B smashes a patio door and opens it and goes into living room and steals a TV and DVD player and leaves the house.

B puts his hand through an open window and steals a purse that has been left on the kitchen unit.

If you have suffered from a housebreaking, please contact the police straight away and try not to touch anything that you think the offender may have touched.

See the websites in related information for further advice and details of how you can register your property with a serial number.

It depends on what type of incident you are reporting. This area of law is very complex so the following is a basic guide only (as there are exceptions).

Road Traffic Incidents -

• Reportable road traffic collisions (see questions in related information for more details) have to be reported as soon as practicable or within 24 hours in any case. Some forces may not take a report of a road traffic collision after a specified amount of time.
• Minor road traffic incidents have to be prosecuted so therefore reported within 6 months (e.g. failing to wear a seatbelt)
• For serious road traffic incidents, there is no time limit when these can be reported/prosecuted (dangerous driving).
• Please note that a collision only needs to be reported if it is a reportable road accident.