A NEW police scheme hopes to make its mark on garden thefts. Following a spate of burglaries of valuable equipment from sheds in rural villages around Hitchin, police community support officer Sara Coombes has a high-tech answer. She has won funding for a

A NEW police scheme hopes to make its mark on garden thefts.

Following a spate of burglaries of valuable equipment from sheds in rural villages around Hitchin, police community support officer Sara Coombes has a high-tech answer.

She has won funding for a signograph machine to property mark garden and other equipment, after growing problems in North Hertfordshire.

Sara, who covers the villages of Wymondley, St Ippolyts, Whitwell and Kimpton, said: "A lot of garden equipment and other pieces of machinery which are kept outside in sheds and outbuildings can't be property marked in the conventional way.

"The signograph allows equipment to be stamped and comes with stickers to be displayed on the outside of sheds as a deterrent to would-be thieves.

"The marking also gives us a higher chance of reuniting property with owners in the unlikely event that it is stolen."

Anyone who lives in one of Sara's villages can have their property marked by calling Hitchin Police Station on 01462 425080.