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Police figures show only one theft on two of Wellingborough’s industrial estates in a year since introducing a property-marking product. SmartWater was rolled out across 95 per cent of the businesses on the town’s Park Farm and Finedon Road Industrial Estates in December 2008 and crime has since dropped dramatically.

Off the back of this success all schools in the borough have now also started using the marking product, plus 5,000 homes, in a police roll-out to tackle burglary.

SmartWater is an invisible, odourless and colourless liquid that can be used to mark all kinds of valuables - from IT gear to lead roofing and metals. The liquid is only visible under ultra-violet light and if marked items are stolen, police can identify who they belong to. Used also as a spray, it leaves a lasting trace on a criminal which can link them to a crime scene.

Wellingborough Council’s Community Committee chairman Malcolm Waters said: “The proof now is there, that SmartWater works, and works well, so people will be encouraged to use it.  It’s not too expensive to use and at the end of the day. if you do get burgled the cost of that outweighs what SmartWater would cost."

"At the beginning of 2009 we did have a high percentage of burglaries, not only on the industrial estates but domestic burglaries too, but since the introduction things have improved. It’s devastating for families to get burgled and we must try our best to put these people behind bars.”