Record Year for Guernsey Crimestoppers

Guernsey Crimestoppers announces a record fund raising year in 2011. During the year we continued to be grateful to our sponsor NatWest, without whose support Crimestoppers' routine activity in the Bailiwick would not be possible. We also raised over £20,000 for local charities, of which £5,000 will benefit our own efforts to encourage calls to our anonymous 0800 555 111 hotline.

Paul Elliott, Guernsey Crimestoppers Committee Chairman, says, “Although we have operated in the islands for over 15 years, 2011 was our first year as a fully registered Guernsey Charity and we took full advantage of the opportunities this gave us to help other local charities whilst also boosting our own finances. In 2012 we plan two significant projects.

"The first of these will support Guernsey Police in providing advanced technology to detect random crime on the island such as criminal damage which includes the serious crime of arson. Secondly we will be launching a campaign to encourage islanders to report domestic violence, using our absolutely anonymous service. We also aim to run further activities to raise funds for ourselves and other local charities.

“People who telephone 0800 555 111 to give Guernsey Crimestoppers anonymous information about criminals can be assured that they do not have to reveal their identities and that we do not trace the origin of the call. Neither should there be any fear of voice recognition; calls to Crimestoppers are not received locally as they are routed directly to our specialist call centre in England. We are not the Police and callers will not be speaking to Police Officers. We at Crimestoppers collate the information we are given and pass it to Guernsey Police ourselves. We also offer rewards to persons who pass us information which leads to a criminal conviction; the system, for paying rewards, entirely protects the identity of the caller.”

On average, 100 anonymous calls per annum are made to Guernsey Crimestoppers about criminals, of which 90% actually assist positively in detecting offenders.

Mr Elliott says, “I would like anyone knowing who is behind criminal activity to make a New Year Resolution to call 0800 555 111 and help make the islands even safer than they already are."

For further information, please contact Paul Elliott on 07781 106629.