Burglars not put off by Covid-19

In over half the recorded incidents of domestic burglary where the thief gained entry to the property and stole, the home owner was at home at the time, according to the Office of National Statistics.  Certainly Brisant-Secure, the company that makes Ultion, the most secure lock on the market, is as busy as before the pandemic.

How has Brisant-Secure coped with the pandemic?

In the first lock down when the whole of the UK was asked to “stay at home” Brisant had to furlough 95% of their staff.  CEO Nick Dutton said,

“We had a record week running upto March 23rd and February 2020 was our record month.” It was a worrying time for the whole sector not knowing what was happening in the UK as well as the rest of the world.  Brisant designs and manufactures door locks and door furniture for sale in the UK market and supplies door manufacturers and locksmiths across the UK.  During lockdown a small team continued providing the emergency locksmith market.  Fortunately, the team came back in July to a record months sales and the company has not looked back since.

The Government Job Retention Bonus Scheme

Rishi Sunak announced every company will receive a £1000 bonus for each previously furloughed member of staff they have retained since lockdown by January 2021.  Meaning around £45,000 for Brisant, the company wanted to invest it in the spirits with which it was intended, by recruiting trainees and securing existing jobs.

Brisant recruit trainees aged 18-24 to support those most vulnerable to job loss

Nick Dutton, CEO of Brisant said,

“We are looking to take people in the 16 to 24 age bracket, who I understand are in the most vulnerable situation and finding it the hardest to find work. We hope to train around four or five young people to take on a skilled role.” Young people in this age bracket were twice as likely to be furloughed that people over 45  and the most lose to lose their job, according to the BBC report September 2020.

Rachel upgraded her locks, the day before her neighbour had his Audi stolen

This is Rachel’s story in her own words

I am genuinely relieved that I had the Ultion locks already installed

 

I had a porch fitted in 2013 and the manufacturer standard lock was installed.  A couple of weeks ago an issue occurred with the door track that required me to call out the window supplier.  While he was here, I happened to say, “I’ve heard about anti-snap locks, are mine that sort, or can you swap them?”    The guy checked and said they were snap-able and it would be better to change them.  Two days later on Saturday morning, Craig rang me to say he had my locks and was 20 minutes away and could he pop by?  I jumped at the chance to sort it out.

Community Police tell Rachel about her neighbour’s stolen Audi

On the Sunday morning the community police came to my door, they smiled through the porch door standing there eagerly with a clipboard while I unlocked (they’re obviously used t making sure they don’t frighten old ladies ?).

They asked if I’d heard or seen anything during the burglary next door , I was flabbergasted, I was unaware there had been a problem. They explained that the neighbours that have lived in the other half of the semi detached property for 20 years had been broken in to on the Tuesday between 12 and 8 am , while they slept, and the car keys taken to take their audi from the drive. The car was brand new 2 months ago, a present to himself from a hard earned retirement pay out after 35 years with the fire service.

I want to tell everyone about the risk of not upgrading their locks

I’ve become a little evangelical about your product (Ultion) and want to tell everyone about this risk. I’m a practice nurse and want everyone to be as safe as possible.

Rachel had Ultion Fitted on her Entrance Doors

Rachel had the three star sold secure diamond lock, Ultion, fitted on her entrance doors, which comes with a homeowner £1000 anti-snap guarantee.  The team at Brisant-Secure is delighted that Rachel is safe, that is what we are here to do.

What is a Smart Lock?

A smart lock is one that a homeowner can operate from an app on a smartphone or iPad to unlock their front door.  Brisant Secure has created Ultion Smart, a smart lock created with security at its heart.

Is Ultion Smart right for my mum, who is 80?

Mum is still quite active, but there are many times when she is sitting on her sofa and has had a long day and really cannot be bothered to get up again.  Over the last year or so, there have been many days when she’s been quite poorly and wanted to stay in bed.  So, I have had a look at Ultion Smart, to assess what it does and whether it would be right for me to put on her front door.

How does Ultion SMART work?

Ultion SMART enables the homeowner to use an app on their smartphone or iPad to lock and unlock their front door.  For security, it uses Bluetooth and not the internet so access cannot be gained remotely. You can use the app to unlock the door from your bedroom, your sofa or your car. Amazon Alexa users can say, ‘Alexa lock the door’. Again for security reasons voice control unlocking isn’t possible. This is central for my mum feeling comfortable.  She was convinced that anyone would be able to yell through the window to Alexa and open her door.  So, we know that’s not possible, which is great news.

What makes Ultion Smart safe?

Firstly, Ultion Smart  works with a euro-cylinder lock, the super secure Ultion three star sold secure diamond lock.  This comes with a £1000 homeowner security guarantee.  It gives an Ultion key that will always work and will always over-ride the tech if desired. (Again the key over-ride is a must for mum.)

Secondly, the outside of the door doesn’t have any electronics or visible difference.    It comes with one of Brisant’s Sweet handles that are designed to look great whatever the weather, or in many cases the existing handle can remain.  From the outside, no one would know that the home was fitted with a smart lock. (Again, a must for mum.)

Thirdly, the technical features don’t use the internet.  They use an app that works within a Bluetooth range, meaning that the lock can’t be hacked.

What makes Ultion Smart, smart?

Ultion SMART is simple, it is an automated thumb turn lock.  It is fitted to the inside of the door and will lock and unlock your door in a range of different ways dependent on what you ask it to do from the app.

There is also a wireless keypad that you can attach to the outside of your property, allowing the homeowner to give access codes to individuals that one wants to enter once or as many times as you wish. (An obvious use for this would be carers or Air B&B.)

So, I think the wireless keypad will help mum and enable the lock to have longevity, if she does need support in the house down the line.

What are the key features of Ultion Smart?

Auto-lock enables the homeowner to set an amount of time after which they want the door to lock. This gives peace fo mind that the door is always locked.

Auto-unlock  enables you to be able to walk through your front door with shopping without fumbling for your key.   (Remember, if for safety the homeowner has set the auto-lock to 30 seconds and it takes you a minute to get from the car with the shopping and into the house, the door will have locked itself again!) I know that sounds simple, but its exactly the kind of thing that would befuddle both me and my mum!

Twist assist  has been created for people with arthritis or mobility issues.  A slight touch will enable the lock to automatically turn.

Again, I think this is a great feature for mum.

Of course, all of these features can be over-ridden with a key.  All the features can be turned on or off.  The auto-lock can be achieved using a voice command. It can come with or without the keypad.

Is a Smart lock right for mum?

Each homeowner will have different needs dependent on their age, mobility and interest in technology. Ultion Smart isn’t a lock of lovers of tech, Ultion Smart is a lock for everyone, old or young, technical or not. So, on balance I am putting Ultion Smart on my mum’s home.  She has her iPad ready and waiting on the sofa, she couldn’t see the phone!

Corona-virus and Low Level Crime

I have never lived through something that has rocked the UK like the corona-virus.  It is understandable that people are frightened, especially vulnerable and older people.  This is the time that we need to try and come together and support each other.  Sadly, human nature being what it is means that we will all need to take steps to protect our loved ones.

Part of the third phase of the Government’s response will be to tell the police to ignore “low level crime”.  That worried us at Brisant, as we know that telling burglars that the police won’t try and catch them, will encourage them to break into our homes.

This is what you can do to protect your belongings and your home.

1. Keep your doors locked all the time, even when you are inside

Almost three quarters of all burglaries occur with the intruder coming through an entrance door.  If you don’t know the person at the door, don’t answer it. Ideally you need a camera to be able to see who is there and decide if you trust them.

If you are upstairs having a sneaky mid-day bath,  out in the garden lounging on a dodgy deck-chair or digging up that pesky old rose bush that you’ve been ignoring for two years, lock all your doors.  Doors need to be fitted with a three star sold secure diamond lock, such as Ultion.

It is dangerous to assume that just because you are in the house that it is secure.  It isn’t safe.  In 64% of domestic burglaries someone is at home.

2. Lock your windows

If a burglar can’t get in through your door, they may try the window.  If the windows are locked it makes it much harder.  Breaking the glass is noisy, the last thing an intruder wants to do is draw attention to themselves.  It’s also harder to remove goods.  When a window is broken it is normal your handbag or wallet that goes missing.   If the burglar has time, they will look for another way out of your home.  So if your keys are obvious and they can open the front door, they will pop in through the back window and remove all your goods through your front door.

LOCK YOUR WINDOWS and KEEP YOUR KEYS AND HANDBAG OUT OF VIEW

3. Install an alarm, CCTV and a doorbell that videos people

The Ring doorbell has the advantage of showing you who is at the door.  Brisant-Secure received a video from a homeowner’s Ring doorbell, showing a burglar walking away from the lock once they realised it was Ultion.  He was swearing about not being able to get through it. We like those videos a lot. We may not be able to stop these people trying, but we can sure as hell stop them getting in.

There’s been much debate about how effective alarms are. At the end of the day if the alarm is going off the burglar is already inside.  However, we will never know how many burglars decide to go next door when they see an alarm box, rather than target your house in the first place.  They are a deterrent, but a deterrent worth having.

CCTV gives hours of entertainment. The other day I used it to prove that a parcel hadn’t been delivered when the courier company claimed it had (video footage sent off and parcel re-issued).  It can even show you what the burglars look like when they try to get through your front door, but fail.  They will fail due to your diligence of fitting Three Star Sold Secure Diamond Ultion locks on all your entrance doors.

4. Don’t tell everyone you are going on holiday!

Well there’s not too much hope of you going anywhere soon.  However, be careful on social media and in your local area about broadcasting that you are going on holiday, or away to look after elderly parents.  You need to keep it to yourself.  The more people who aware that your home is empty, the more likely it is that it will become a target for attack. Additionally, be careful about sharing photos on social media of you in your bikini in Barbados.  You are letting potential burglars know you are a good twelve hours away from home.  It gives them many hours to get in, take all your stuff and get out again!

However, do tell your neighbours (as long as you get on with them and they aren’t wearing a balaclava.) They are the best people to be able to keep an eye on your house while you are away and make sure that it is secure.

5.  Be careful where you leave your handbag/wallet

Don’t leave your car keys, phone, wallet, handbag on view next to the window or door – it is just too tempting.  There is a ridiculous amount of opportunism in theft and with less policemen on the beat, and the police needing to ignore low level crime, there is a rise in opportunistic theft.

6. Install outside lighting and have lamps on a timer

Burglars don’t like lights, especially ones that detect movement and flood the area so you can see what’s going on.  For cost effectiveness fitting floodlights is up there will changing all your cylinders.

Also, if you are on holidays, pop a few lamps on a timer.  Lights left on all the time are a give-away that you aren’t there.

7. Burglars don’t like dogs

Burglars don’t like dogs.  They bark when there’s someone trying to come into their space. In fact my two dogs go ballistic. There is no way you would be sleeping through that. As an adult, I’ve always had dogs.  I didn’t even realise how safe a big well-trained dog made me feel until I was alone in the house last year the night before I went on holiday and the dogs were in kennels.  Not only was it eerily quiet, but I obsessively checked all the doors and windows as I knew that my doggy alarm system was on holiday.

This is Daisy, terrifying, isn’t she?

8. Keep your shed secure

I have a shed at the bottom of the garden full of goodies.  I feel confident telling you about it, as it is locked with the Brisant-Secure padlock keyed alike with my Ultion front door key. Burglars love sheds, they are full of goodies that can be sold easily and that people need all the time. http://ultion-lock.co.uk/products/padlocks

Keep your home safe from burglars, even if you are in it!

These are my top eight tips for keeping your home safe and secure whether you are in bed, in the bath or in Barbados. Louise fitted Ultion locks on her house, read about her experience here. Louise secured her home from burglars just in time…

How do burglars enter homes in the UK?

Research shows us that 78% of all burglaries occur with the home being entered through the front or back door.  Would you believe that only 2% of these entries happened because the lock was either picked or bumped?  The figures don’t tell us whether the lock was picked because by the time the locksmith arrives to change the lock, it is impossible too distinguish between a picked and a bumped lock.  Hence the 2% figure looks statistically vague.  However, we at Brisant have made and designed locks for many years.  We suspect that most of the locks, if not all of this 2%, will have been bumped.

Do burglars in the UK pick locks?

We don’t think so!  Some of us may have an image of a “James Bond” style burglar who gets on his hands and knees with his roll of special lock picking tools and then uses his well trained eye, his hugely honed skill to gently and quietly pick the lock which opens silently. Lock picking is a combination of skill, training, practice, specialist tools and patience.  However, trust us, that is not the profile of the typical UK burglar.  UK burglars are not highly skilled, trained lock pickers.  They are thugs who try and batter their way through your door and lock.

If you think of lock picking as a sport, that gives you a better understanding of what is going on.  It’s a game played by highly trained people against each other.  Being a lock picker is like being a master chess player.

How do burglars try and get through your lock?

Most burglars try and snap the lock.  Unless you have the right lock in your door, a burglar will be able to snap the lock, using brute force and a screw driver, and be in your house in seconds.  They will not be able to do this with the Ultion lock.  Ultion has a £1000 guarantee against lock snapping.  We don’t think any burglars would bother learning to pick a lock (not that we think they’d have the brains to be able to learn anyhow) when they can use brute force to get through many locks on many doors in the UK.  Protecting yourself is easy and relatively cheap.  This is not something to be scared of.  Protect yourself with a high quality lock and stop making it easy for them.

The next highest level of reported break-in method by locksmiths is drilling.  This means that the burglar has a great big power drill and tries to drill the lock out.  Imagine the man walking around the streets with a cordless drill, making 100 decibels plus of noise and getting through a range of drill bits, making a complete mess and a huge amount of disturbance on the street.  Now imagine a homeowner getting home and realising they have lost their key.  He borrows his mate’s drill from next door because, after all, how hard can it be to drill a lock?  I’ll drill it out and get in.  After a few drill bits, commotion on the street and them still being locked out, they call the locksmith.  Many locksmiths tell us that they suspect that the “14%” figure of reported attempted break-ins by drilling would be significantly less than that in reality, with a good percentage being the homeowner trying to get into their own home, realising they can’t, but not wanting to invalidate their insurance.

Locksmiths are highly trained individuals

Locksmiths in the UK are highly trained individuals that spend many years honing their skill so they can keep homes safe and secure.  The development of locks started in Ancient Egypt 6 thousand years ago, when a basic ‘pin tumbler’ lock was made from wood.  Imagine the time, skill, brains and engineering that has gone into creating the best quality locks available on the UK market that can keep your home safe.  Imagine the time, skill, brains and engineering that goes into trying to get through them.

Lock-picking tools and the sport of lock picking

The people that dedicate their lives to the skill of picking locks are not the people breaking into your house.  They are not scumbags.  They are highly intelligent people helping move forward the safety of lock engineering.  The video attached to this blog shows a prolific lock picking specialist called Locknoob who has picked hundreds of locks picking an Ultion lock.  He said to us,

“In real life people aren’t burgling houses by picking locks, I have the luxury of a warm office , a choice of equipment, time to practice and a vice to help me.”

He has no pressure, no one watching him, no time restrictions.  He is not looking over his shoulder worried about someone catching him.  He is doing this for interest only.  He is a “lock-picking master.”  In the time it takes this highly trained specialist, in the comfort of his own home, with specialist tools, your burglar would have made it in and nicked your laptop and been half way up the road.  Burglars are not trained specialists.  They are – in the main – lads that have failed in school, done nothing with their lives and so have to try and nick what you’ve earned by forcing their way into your home.  They can force their way through an unprotected door in 9 seconds.  They are just taking advantage of people that are not educated in how to protect themselves.

Arguably any lock can be picked with the right tools and the right environment and time.  Did you know that in some states of America even owning lock picking tools is a criminal offence as its seen as “intent to break the law.”

The standard UK burglar is not a highly trained individual, they are an uneducated scumbag

The last part of this video shows a real life burglar recorded on a Ring doorbell.  He is trying to snap the lock.  The door has an Ultion lock on it and you can hear them say they, “can’t do it” and they leave empty handed.  Burglaries are done and gone within moments.  The longer they are there, the more chance they will be caught.  If you stop them from managing to get through the door, your property is much safer.

Would you lend your house key to a stranger and tell him your address?

We all know how careful we are about giving away keys to our homes, we don’t do it.  Keys are reserved for our closest families and friends.  Nobody would ever walk up to someone they have never met before and give them their address and key and feel safe.  It would be madness to behave like that!

Do you keep your PIN number and credit card in the same place?

Everyone knows that to do so is crazy because it means unscrupulous people can empty your account of cash. Banks are forever telling us that they will never ask for your PIN number, it is a secret shared only by you and a super-crypto computer somewhere. Yet loads of people don’t realise that buying their home lock from an unknown eBay seller is as risky as keeping PIN and card together.

Buying locks on eBay can be Dangerous

If you buy a lock from eBay, you are putting your safety, your possessions and your home at risk.  Allowing a total stranger to know your address and have access to the lock that will be responsible for securing that address, is risky.  How do you know that you have been sent all the keys that were manufactured with that lock?  How do you know that the seller hasn’t copied the key before it is sent in order to enter your home illegally at a later date? How do you know that the seller isn’t going to sell the key with the address?

‘So, I will just have it delivered to a different address’ you may say. Easier said than done in reality. If, like me, you use Paypal with eBay you’ll know that for the sellers security PayPal won’t allow deliveries to addresses that the homeowner and payment card aren’t registered to.

Brisant-Secure’s Key Control

If you buy a lock directly from the manufacturer, or from one of Brisant’s approved suppliers, you as the homeowner will be able to activate “key control” immediately.  Activating key control means that you receive an email if anyone tries to cut a key with your unique Ultion key code.  It works fantastically well, if the lock is bought from Brisant or one of our approved suppliers.  However, if bought on eBay and the seller has copied the key BEFORE they sell it to you, key control offers no protection.  Buying a lock is one of those things that you have to do directly with a door company, locksmith or manufacturer to be sure of your safety.

Buy your locks from known trusted sources

A homeowner must buy their lock and their door – together or separately – from trust worthy traders.  It might sound like it should go without saying, but there isn’t a lot of point in buying the most secure lock on the market if someone else has a key!

What is an accessible home?

It’s a new decade and we have no doubt at Brisant Secure that this decade will be about Smart technology.  Increasingly people want their homes tailor-made for their needs.  It makes sense with the advances in technology for everyone to have a home that enables them to live their life to the full.  Whether people are disabled from birth or temporarily disabled through injury or illness, having their environment especially suited to themselves is a basic requirement in this new decade.

What adaptations can be made?

You only have to watch a few episodes of DIY SOS to see the amendments that can be made.  Hoists can be attached into bathrooms to make washing easier; electric beds; lowered counter levels in the kitchen.  Even having light switches at the right level when you are a wheelchair user makes a huge difference.  One of the biggest issues though, is opening the front door when it is hard to get to the door. Whether it’s to let the kids back in from school or a carer.

Brisant Secure design Ultion Smart

Brilliant Secure designed Ultion Smart to address this need.  It has a range of functions which help people with differing tasks.  For people whose hands don’t have strength, there’s the “twist assist” function.  The most gentle touch will enable the door to be opened.  This is useful for people with arthritis.

What about people who have limited mobility?  Ultion Smart can be opened on voice command using a unique reference number.  Alternatively visitors can be given codes unique for one day, one week or weekly codes that are inputted on an outside pad.  The programming has infinite possibilities that can be programmed to what is happening for the home owner.

Ultion Smart can be set to open when it detects the owner’s phone within a specified zone set by the homeowner.  So, when you are coming back from work, the school run, with the shipping and have your hands full, the door will unlock automatically and then lock again.  The  is set to lock itself after 30 seconds with no need to lift the handle up.

James from Lockrite fitted Ultion Smart and this is what he had to say

James from Lockrite fitted an Ultion Smart on a customer’s home who is also a wheelchair user.   He made a video to explain its features and he told us,

“This is a locking solution that I recently put together for a local customer.  It incorporates some of the newest smart devices available at the moment and I’m very happy to say that it has completely changed his life for the better.”

Brisant couldn’t be happier.  This is exactly what we were hoping would be the case when the team developed Ultion Smart.  It’s a new lock for a new decade and it makes people’s lives better.

Brisant-Secure (the owners of Ultion)  is the eighteenth fastest growing company in the UK, according to the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100, published Sunday December 1^st 2020.  We think this is down to the popularity of Ultion.

Homeowners are more savvy about how to protect themselves

As we know, police numbers are down and burglaries are very low on their list of priorities.  Homeowners have had to become significantly more “savvy” in terms of protecting their own properties, after doing a little research they soon realise how exposed they are. They then go to find out what they can do to protect themselves

Homeowners upgrade their locks to Ultion three star plus

During the three years that The Sunday Times measured this growth we have witnessed a surge in people looking to protect themselves with the best locks.  Alan, head of a Neighbourhood Watch scheme in Scotland, coordinated the upgrade of the whole estate to Ultion, purchasing over 45 locks and padlocks.  Alan said, “It’s foolish not to change your locks, it is the cheapest and most effective way to secure your home.”

Homeowners surprised at how little the best protection costs

What we hear often is how surprised they are at how little the cost difference is between a normal lock with no security and the best lock that genuinely keeps the bad guys out. John (who shared a video recently showing burglars not getting past his Ultion lock) said “after I was burgled last year and upgraded my locks I was really surprised at how little it cost to get the best lock available”.

Brisant’s strong research and development team give people what the need and what they want

85% of break-ins are through lock snapping; 58% of burglaries happen while homeowners are at home; a staggering 28% of people meet their burglar.  At Brisant we would prefer a world where people did not try and take your possessions, but that’s not happening anytime soon.