Quarter 'would buy stolen goods' (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Quarter 'would buy stolen goods'

7:24am Sunday 27th May 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

A quarter of Britons would turn a blind eye to buy stolen goods if the price was right, new research shows.

One in four admitted they would break the law for a bargain and in the last year close to one in three adults (29%) came across suspected stolen items for sale at a market, pub (22%) or auction website (21%).

In a study involving more than 2,000 people, it emerged a growing number of burglars were stealing brands to order and using shops and auction websites to sell illegal goods.

According to the criminologists' research, one in 20 (5%) burglaries committed last year was carried out with the intention of finding a specific brand.

The research was undertaken by home insurer LV= and involved interviews with burglary victims and convicted thieves.

It revealed the stealing to order trend has increased in the past five years.

Apple, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft and Dell items topped the thieves' shopping lists because they could be sold on easily for a large proportion of the retail price.

The average going rate on the black market for popular items by these manufacturers are £345 for a stolen iPhone, £210 for an iPad and £160 for a games console - around half the cost of buying them new from an official retailer.

Government statistics show burglaries increased by 14% last year, from 651,000 to 745,000 in 2011, with victims losing £1,400 worth of belongings on average.

Small electronic goods are the most commonly stolen items.