BURGLARS have targeted dozens of homes across Banbury over the last three weeks and stolen tens of thousands of pounds worth of property.

Over the weekend, another six houses were burgled bringing the total in the recent spate to 26.

Thieves have targeted the Bretch Hill, Easington and Grimsbury areas of town.

They have taken jewellery, cash and computer games worth about £60,000, but left larger items such as plasma televisions.

This recent string of burglaries account for almost half of the district’s 60 reported burglaries since August 1.

So far police have arrested 20 people in connection with the burglaries, all of whom have been released on bail.

No-one has been charged.

Detective Inspector Steve Duffy has moved to reassure the community, particularly the Asian community, that Cherwell was still one of the safest areas to live.

Concerns had been raised earlier that Asian families were being targeted by the thieves.

But police confirmed only five per cent of the 26 homes burgled were people from Banbury’s 5,000-strong Asian community.

Det Insp Duffy said: “The general trend from April was a massive reduction of 18 per cent.

“There is still an 11 per cent reduction, but the recent spate has equated to a seven per cent increase during the months of September and October.

“It only needs someone to move into or target the area.

“It’s certainly more than one person, but what we haven’t established yet, is if there is more than one team working unconnected.

“Asian homes burgled represent a very small percentage out of the whole number in the period we are measuring.

“The message we want to put across is that the Asian community is not being targeted nor is any other ethnic background.”

Det Insp Duffy said stolen items were worth in excess of £60,000, but thieves would not make anywhere near that sum.

He said: “The thing that has considerably added to the value of that has been the Asian families’ burglaries because there was a lot of valuable gold.”

l Police have recently recovered a significant amount of jewellery including gold bracelets, a diamond studded cross and a snake ring.

Next Wednesday, November 17, there will be a viewing day for people who may have had items stolen to identify anything that could be theirs.