Revealed: The UK's burglary hotspots, and in first place is... Leeds

The UK's burglary hotspots were revealed today, including the postcode area where homes are most likely to have been targeted by thieves.

People living in LS13 in Leeds were the most likely to have filed insurance claims for burglary in a two-year period.

The postcode in second place was BD12 in Bradford, followed by North Finchley (N12) in London, Eccles in Manchester (M30) and Noak Hill in Romford, Essex (RM3).

The postcodes where people were least likely to have made a claim included SA9 in Swansea, SA62 in Pembrokeshire and LA14 in Cumbria.

Comparison website MoneySupermarket.com analysed 3.49 million applications for home insurance quotes made between December 2011 and the end of November 2012.

They looked at the number of users who said they had made a claim for burglary at their current address in the past two years.

The number of claims made per 1,000 inquiries was then calculated for each area, to allow postcodes to be compared.

Hannah Jones from the website said: "While there are clearly some areas of the country with a higher proportion of insurance claims for burglary than others, this doesn't actually mean the area is 'rife' with crime.

"Thieves often specifically target areas with wealthy residents, or quieter areas where there's not a lot of passing foot traffic, where the rewards are potentially greater and the risk of being caught in the act may be lower.

"Areas affected by higher rates of burglary insurance claims will see their premiums impacted - increasing by a fifth on average. Higher value properties could expect to pay even more than this.

"Insurers take a blanket approach to assessing postcode districts for home insurance premiums rather than looking at insurance applications on a case by case basis. So, although you may not have been a victim of burglary directly, you could be paying more for insurance if there are higher rates of burglary claims made within your postal area.

"The key thing is not to simply accept your insurance renewal."

PA