CORFE MULLEN
Home Watch
Newsletter Autumn 2016
Corfe Mullen Home Watch Committee: Peter Whittam (Chairman) 01202 692313, Duncan Pennington (Secretary) 01202 699971, JohnBentall (Treasurer) 01202 695764, Laurie Powell (Membership and Publicity) 07923407616, Dick Parkes (Security) 01202 884923, Terry Plummer (Newsletter Editor) 01202 939405, Chris Shaw 07719 307852, David Mattocks 01202 658883. Pauline Cashmore 01202 659823
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CORFE MULLEN
Message from the Chairman
I am sorry to report that our Secretary, Duncan Pennington, is leaving us to move to Cornwall. He has been instrumental in setting up our Facebook page and also running the website, and his input to the Committee will be greatly missed. I am very grateful to him for his service to Home Watch and the community of Corfe Mullen.
We are in need of two or three new Committee members, one of whom will take on the role of Secretary. Our numbers have been depleted due to ill health and also to moving out of the area so a leaflet will be distributed with this Newsletter asking for volunteers. We are also still in need of Coordinators.I am sure you will find that volunteering will bring a great deal of personal satisfaction and will, of course, be of benefit to Corfe Mullen as a whole.
The Corfe Mullen Carnival celebrated its 50th anniversary on 11th June. It was held in the larger area of the recreation ground which gave much more space for the many stalls and for the stage. There appeared to be an excellent attendance and I understand that they actually ran out of programs. Your committee was there manning the Home Watch Stall, accompanied by ‘The Shed’.
The next Members and Coordinators Meeting, is on Friday 14th October at 7.00pm for coffee/tea and will be held in The Village Hall, Towers Way. We only had 8 members to the last meeting, which was very disappointing especially as we had a very good talk from Dorset Fireand Rescue. We were reminded that we are offered free home safety checks providing free supply and installation of smoke alarms.
Please come along to our next meeting and give us your support.
Peter Whittam
Your Co-ordinator
Safer Neighbourhood Team (S.N.T.)
The Corfe Mullen S.N.T., of Dorset Police will attendevery other Friday from the start of the month in the Village Hall from 10am to 12 noon.
Security Products are on sale in the Village Hall – last Friday of every month – 10.00 – 11.30am.
The team can also be reached as follows:
Telephone: 101 (only dial 999 if a life is in danger or a crime is in progress)
Email: bsite:
Our Home Watch Secretary regularly passes on messages with crime detailsor warnings about potential home security matters which come from Dorset Police or from other Home Watch sources. These are sent out to about 70 Co-ordinators whose email addresses are onour mailing list.
If any Corfe Mullen Home Watch member would like to be added to the mailing list please send your request with your name, address and email address to:-
(Print as capitals please … we will change to lower case. Thanks)
Crimes reported in May 2016
All Crime 31
Anti-social behaviour 14
Bicycle Theft 0
Burglary 3
Criminal damage and arson 2
Drugs 1
Other Crime 0
Other theft 3
Possession of weapons 0
Public Order 0
Robbery 0
Shoplifting 2
Theft from the person 0
Vehicle crime 2
Violence and sexual offences 4
A message from Alison Copland, HeathWatch Co-ordinator.
At last, summer seems to have put in an appearance. I think we're all grateful for that, but now is the time to be extra vigilant with regard to fires on our heaths. A blaze can be started so easily, whether intentionally or not, so please take care with cigarettes or matches (preferably don't use them at all!) and keep your eyes and noses on high alert for signs of smoke or flames.
Eight nature areas have been brought together around Corfe Mullen to create a new Nature Park. Visitors can enjoy paths and self-guidedtrails, created by volunteers, through woodland, heathland, meadows and pastures, andthere are plenty of information boards describing the wildlife you might see.
PROTECT YOURSELF NOW
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has noticed an increase in reports of fraudsters placing fake letter boxes on residential properties in an attempt to harvest the mail. Residents are sometimes unaware of the fake letterbox as the fraudsters will periodically remove the item, which may leave notable markings. The mail is then used to open various lines of credit with financial providers in the name of the innocent resident.
Online shopping websites are being utilised by fraudsters to advertise vehicles for sale which do not exist. After agreeing to purchase the vehicle via email with the fraudsters, buyers then receive emails purporting to be from Amazon Payments and/or Amazon Flexible Payment Service stating that their money will be held in an ‘escrow account’ (a bank account held by a third party, used as a temporary holding account during a transaction between two parties- for a 7 day ‘cooling off’ period). Once happy with the purchase the email indicates the money will be released to the seller, therefore offering ‘buyer protection’. In reality these emails are fraudulent and do not come from Amazon. The bank accounts are controlled by fraudsters.
Dorset Police is alerting local residents about the latest phone and online scams, after seeing a large increase in the number of reports compared to previous years. The two most commoncompanies criminals are pretending to be from are currently Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Talk Talk. Over the last couple of years, fraudsters have pretended to be police officers and bank workers when they’ve called their victims, but the latest phone scam involves criminals pretending to be from HMRC. Fraudsters are cold calling members of the public to tell them that they owe HMRC a sum of money or that HMRC owe them a refund.
Criminals then obtain bank details and personal information from their unsuspecting victims and commit fraudulent activity on their bank accounts.
When you’re out and about; make those intruders think you are home. Fake TV as seen on ‘This Morning.’
To purchase a genuine Fake TV with an exclusive discount, available to all Neighbourhood Watch Members:
Visit when asked - enter discount code: NHW16
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