WATCH: The shocking moment a burglar is caught using a garden spade to TAKE OFF a window

CCTV footage showing a burglar using a garden spade to completely take off the window of a house has been re-shared by Greater Manchester Police.

The force has issued the footage of Kevin Sumner breaking into a home in Ashton-under-Lyne in 2022, as they provided an update on how officers are continuing to clamp down on burglaries across the region.

The shocking clip shows Sumner, of of Russel Street in Tameside, using the spade to prize open the window at the back of a house before climbing inside and stealing car keys and a vehicle. He was later jailed for three years in 2023.

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Operation Castle was launched by the force in 2021, with reports of burglary incidents in 2024 dropping by 3,300 compared with the previous year.

After the success of the pilot scheme in Greater Manchester, the Home Office later announced that all police forces across the country would be required to attend every report of domestic burglary.

Dedicated burglary teams were set up across local districts in the region, with Operation Castle using various resources across the force to promote crime prevention, improve detections, and also improve public confidence that an attendance at every burglary achieves.

In the last two years, GMP has charged and remanded 754 individuals for residential and commercial burglary. The force’s crime prevention team were awarded £66,000 to fund the purchase of crime prevention products to distribute to victims and potential victims of burglary and vehicle crime in neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester.

These include window alarms, door alarms, timer switches, fake TV strobe lights to make it look like