St Albans district has been targeted by criminals posing as cold callers.

Herts police has issued a warning to residents of Marshalswick, Park Street, London Colney and Chiswell Green after a number of houses have been burgled over the past few days.

The victims had jewellery, cash, Asian gold and cars stolen just days after being called upon by an unexpected visitor.

Det Insp Alexandra Warwick said: “If you are cold called by a man asking if you would like work done on your driveway, when the next bus is or if a certain person is home, be suspicious.”

In one instance, jewellery burglars used patio windows to get into a home on New House Park between 9am on October 19 and 8.15pm on October 26.

Separately, offenders ransacked a house and stole money from a house on Bricket Wood’s Mount Pleasant Lane between 7.15pm and 8.30pm on October 25.

Det Insp Warwick added: “We have increased both high-visibility and covert police patrols and are acting on information from residents. Please look out for your neighbours, report anything suspicious to us, write down and report number plates of any suspicious vehicles you see and let us know if you have been approached by spurious or odd cold callers – this is important as a lot of the addresses had suspicious callers days before being burgled.”

She encouraged everyone to sign up to the Neighbourhood Watch via owl.co.uk and report all crime, adding: “Call police if you have been a victim of crime or have some information about a crime, rather than posting it on social media.

“We sometimes get criticised for not responding to incidents when we have not been made aware of them.”