Bogus callers preying on elderly Harold residents are being targeted by police in a new high profile campaign.

Operation Keeper is a pan-London initiative aimed at stopping artifice burglars, or bogus callers, in their tracks and reducing the public's fears of becoming victims of crime on their doorstep.

Across London, burglaries committed by callers conning their way into their victim's homes rose by 24 per cent during 1998, and Harold has not escaped the scourge.

Just weeks ago, an 81-year-old Sunnydene Close resident was left distressed and shocked after three men talked their way into his home and made off with £340 cash.

But the Metropolitan Police hope that Operation Keeper will slash the number of similar offences by six per cent.

Under the scheme, minimum investigation standards will be introduced, analysis and exchange of intelligence will be improved, a public awareness campaign will be launched and new technology introduced to target suspects.

The Metropolitan Police's director of crime management, DAC Bill Griffiths, said: "Artifice burglars should know that our resources will be dedicated to putting them out of business.

"Burglary artifice is a despicable crime that mainly affects the elderly. The facts show that the vast majority of older people will never become victims but it is the fear of crime that still makes them feel vulnerable.

"Through Operation Keeper, the Met is taking forward valuable work already under way at local level and building this into a co-ordinated, corporate strategy to combat this crime."

The new campaign will be built on the success and tactics of the Met's Operation Bumblebee, which has made a serious impact on the overall number of burglaries in London, which are now at their lowest level since 1980.

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