hand shops in Nuneaton and Bedworth are continuing to help police make life as difficult as possible for offenders attempting to sell stolen goods.

Community Safety Officer PC Andy Marchi explained “We are asking second hand shops to continue to work with us to reduce the opportunities for thieves, burglars and handlers of stolen property to sell the items on.

“The scheme is working well with most second hand shops now displaying the ‘We don’t buy stolen property’ poster. We also regularly offer advice and support on how to spot stolen goods to shop owners including offering UV equipment so that staff can check for security markings on all items that are brought in for sale.

PC Marchi said “It is in the interests of these shops to identify the stolen goods before they purchase them as we make regular visits to second hand shops and will seize any property we believe to be stolen.

Stolen property remains the property of the original owner and if recovered will be returned to them.

Linda Williams, Manager at Cash Convertors in the Queens Road, Nuneaton said “We pride ourselves in the fact that we work very closely with the local police and we have done for a number of years.

When someone brings something in we check the goods and agree a price. We check the customer has Id. We will not do a transaction without id so we can trace the goods back to the person if they do turn out to be stolen. Then we take a picture of the person on our computer system so we have a photo of everyone who does a transaction with us. The customer signs a legal agreement to confirm the goods are their property.

The PCSO’s and officers regularly pop in to see us and examine the goods we have in stock and to examine our books.

If a customer is known to sell us stolen goods, we set an alert on the system so we no longer deal with them. This has happened several times now.

We get regular visits from Warwickshire, Leicestershire, West Midlands police to have a look at our stock and the door is always open to them. We also invite them to examine our computer database.

PC Marchi added “The posters aim to remind thieves, burglars and handlers of stolen property that police are working in partnership with the shop and stolen property is not welcome.

“We believe the more difficult it is for offenders to sell stolen property the less likely they are to steal it in the first place.

We are urging people to mark their property. One of the most frustrating things for officers is to recover suspected stolen goods but because it is not security marked police are often unable to reunite it with the original owner.

PC Marchi said “By marking your property you reduce it’s value to the thief. So that when they come to sell it it’s worth nothing. If they cannot sell it. It’s not worth stealing it.

PC Marchi added “We’d encourage people to mark Sat navs, laptops, stereos, ipods, mobile phones, plasma tvs, in fact, anything of value - even marking CDs clearly with a postcode makes them worthless to thieves as they cannot sell them on to anyone else because they are visibly flawed and can be traced back to you.

One UV pen or smartwater pack can be used for all of these items.

Smartwater is a liquid forensic coding system. Once applied to items of value, such as jewellery or electrical equipment, SmartWater's home coding system will act as both a deterrent to criminals and a valuable aid to police officers. Thanks to its unique numbering system each household will be given its own ‘forensic fingerprint', which is even more individual and robust than DNA.

Such is the power of SmartWater's technology that a criminal would have to physically remove every speck of the forensic coding solution from a stolen item before they would be safe from prosecution - a virtually impossible task.

Smartwater can be bought through your local neighbourhood watch at a discounted rate or from www.smartwater.co.uk You can also contact your local community safety officer for more information.

UV pens can be obtained free of charge by contacting your Community Safety Officer at your local Police Station.