“Surrey residents live in the shadow of raids, burglary and drug crime from London. Surrey Police need to prioritise both routine patrols to prevent or detect this and more resources to track down and prosecute the offenders,” said Nick O’Shea, Liberal Democrat candidate for Police & Crime Commissioner in Surrey.

Speaking after the raid on Christianes Jewellers in Bookham last week, he repeated calls for a greater effort and more resources to be committed to fighting the epidemic of crime overspill from London.

“Surrey’s network of motorways, fast A roads and excellent railway links to London enable gangs from London easy access to our towns and villages and a rapid and effective escape route once they have raided our shops, burgled our homes or dumped drugs into our streets and schools. Surrey Police need to focus on increasing patrols in the areas most affected by this spill-over from London’s crime. Surrey’s people have been seen as easy picking by London gangs and criminals for far too long.

Mr O’Shea has previously called for more patrols in areas at higher risk of raids by London criminal gangs, monitoring main roads for known criminals from London coming into and leaving the county and use of existing surveillance cameras to look out for gang members travelling in Surrey. “Over the past decade, our local councils have invested massively in CCTV cameras to monitor our town centres and streets to keep them safe. These should be used to look out for known criminals and drug dealers from London so they know not to come to Surrey.

“We also have a huge network of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to monitor vehicles on both main roads and motorways. If these are not to be seen as an unnecessary intrusion into people’s privacy, they must be seen to be used to monitor our roads for criminals who can then be apprehended.

“We have the tools and ability to improve crime prevention, and to detect and catch criminals if they do commit crimes in Surrey. We must now use them to their fullest extent to keep Surrey Safe.”