Just 13 per cent of burglaries were solved in Merton last year, including just 10 per cent of domestic burglaries.

Despite this low figure, Merton is in fact the third best borough in London for solving residential burglaries.

Since 2010, when the Metropolitan Police’s budget was cut by £600m, the percentage of domestic burglaries solved in London has halved from 12 per cent in 2010/11 to just six per cent in 2014/15.

In the same period, 96 uniformed officers have been cut from Merton Police, and dedicated neighbourhood policing teams have been reduced from six to two officers each.

It has been speculated a further £800m cut will be announced in the Autumn Spending Review in November.

In July, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe told a meeting of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee further cuts would mean "we would end up with some less police but I am not going to be precise."

Between August 2014 and July 2015, 194 of the total 1,547 reported burglaries in Merton were solved by the police.

Of the 963 domestic burglaries in this time period, only 101 were solved.

This is an improvement on the year before, when just nine per cent of domestic burglaries were solved, but a fall in success from the period August 2012 to July 2013, when 227 of the 1,258 burglaries - 18 per cent - were solved.

A police spokesman said: "Since April 2015, Merton is the third best borough in London for solving residential burglaries and we are currently on track to see a reduction in offences of over 20 per cent since 2011 by the end of March 2016.

"We have a dedicated team who investigate burglary crimes and target offenders, we continue to respond to all calls to burglaries or suspicious activity and arrest offenders. We prevent crimes through patrolling and giving crime prevention advice and we conduct regular operations to respond to seasonal trends.

Police recommendations for avoiding burglary include storing keys out of sight, installing timers for lights, marking possessions with a UV property marking liquid and keeping a photographic diary of jewellery.