Even if you're just popping out for a quarter of an hour, don't leave doors and windows open or unlocked. A burglary can take less than ten minutes.

This time element leads me to my second main point, that where a house is hard to get into and will take a long time to do so because you've fitted good locks and bolts on your exterior doors or windows or even burglar alarms, the chances are that burglar will move on to somewhere easier.

There are plenty of these I can assure you. Milk bottles left on the doorstep, papers by the front door, garage doors wide open, curtains drawn in the daytime or undrawn at night are all indications. For comparatively little, you can buy a programmed time switch that'll turn on and off a light at appropriate times.

Not all burglaries happen while you are out, of course, you should always be wary of callers at the door who say, for example, that they've come to read the gas meter, always check their credentials, and if in doubt, don't let them in. It's also a good idea to keep a record of serial numbers of electrical equipment, radios, TVs and so on, or even to take photographs of valuable jewellery, antiques or pictures.

Any further tips I may not have mentioned can alway be got from your local police station, where you should ask to speak to the Crime Prevention Officer. In the final analysis, I think I should say that when it comes to fitting security systems, and the like you've really got to strike a balance between the cost of what you spend on installing the system and the value of the property you're trying to protect.