Insurers Give Out Warning Following Met Chief's Burglary Comments

Insurance companies have told policy holders it would be "foolish" to believe that they would be protected for burglary claims if left they their doors and windows open. Firms were responding to comments from the chief of the Metropolitan police that crime had now dropped to a low enough level that people felt safe to do so.

Sir Ian Blair caused surprise when he said people were "...opening their doors, leaving their doors open now or leaving them unlocked, certainly, in a way they haven't done for 25 years".

People would be offering "a perfect invite" to thieves if they did so, claimed Paul Redington, Norwich Union's property claims manager.

And he was quick to add that claimants "almost certainly" would not be covered if this was the case.

In what may prove to be the most recent in a series of blunders, or uncertain pronouncements, Sir Ian praised police in the London borough of Haringey for "adopting" two 19-storey tower blocks.

Talking to the journal Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Sir Ian questioned how long it had been since police patrolled the corridors of a tower block and said that it was as if, when the slums they replaced were razed to the ground, the police stopped patrolling.

The Met police's own website, however, advises people on how to make their doors and home more secure, and does not recommend leaving them open.

Mr Redington said it was true that we are not living in society where people have to lock themselves in their homes and when the weather is very warm, one would anticipate that windows would be left open.

He went on to say, however, that leaving windows open and doors unlocked when you are not in the home is very foolish and presents the perfect invitation to a passing burglar. Furthermore if you were burgled and had to make a claim it is almost certain that you would not be covered.

There were 33,138 crimes reported in the borough of Haringey during the past year, of which 2,834 were burglaries, according to police data.

Sir Ian is on holiday at present, and maintained a low profile earlier this month throughout the airport terror saga.

Yet criticism has been directed at him over a range of actions, some more significant than others.

On the day that Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician, was mistakenly killed by police officers, he insisted to journalists that Mr de Menezes was directly associated with an anti-terrorist operation - a statement that others have since suggested Sir Iain knew to be incorrect even at the time that he issued it.

He was criticised for trying to lobby MPs in support of controversial government proposals, favoured by the police, to detain suspects linked to terror for a maximum of up to 90 days without charge last year - a proposal which was finally rejected, although the maximum period did rise from 14 to 28 days.

In March he was made to apologise to the attorney general following his admittance that he secretly taped phone calls to from Lord Goldsmith and others to his office without their consent.

An apology was also issued from him in January after he said that he could not comprehend the media attention that was given to the Soham murders.