During March and April, Suffolk Constabulary held a property marking campaign with a competition to encourage pupils from Ipswitch high schools to sign up to the website Immobilise.  Chantry High School won a £200 cheque for the most pupils signing up to Immobilise, with 246 registering for an account.

Immobilise is the world's largest free register of possession ownership details and an effective tool in helping to reduce crime and return property to its rightful owners.  Immobilise can be used by members of the public and businesses to register their valued items or company assets.  The online database checking service is used by all UK Police forces to trace owners of lost or stolen property.  During the past six years the Immobilise service has grown to service over 22 million members in the UK alone.  For more information please visit www.immobilise.com

Police Community Support Officers and former Crime Reduction Officer Jacqui Paternoster visited eight Ipswitch schools to property mark pupils' phones and bikes with UV pens.  The pupils were also encouraged to sign up to Immobilise by filling in a form with their email address.  The school with the most pupils registered in Immobilise were given a £200 cheque supplied from Suffolk Constabulary's East Basic Command Unit (BCU) fund.  The eight schools that took part were Chantry, Northgate, Copleston, Holywells, St Albans, Thurleston, Stoke and Westbourne.

The pupils were also given the chance to win a variety of other prizes, and the winners were selected at random.

Former Crime Reduction Officer Jacqui Paternoster says: "We wanted to encourage young people in Ipswitch to keep their property safe.  Pupils in high schools are the most at-risk age group as 10,000 mobile phones are stolen every month with two-thirds of the victims aged between 13 and 16 years old.  The campaign was a huge success with 913 pupils registereing in total."

Head Teacher of Chantry High School, Mr Fell, says: "We are fully in support of the Immobilise campaign.  As young people have increasingly expensive personal belongings it is important that they learn to take responsibility for them.  This is a great example of how they can do this.  We are delighted that we are the winners of this prize as it reflects the commitment of our staff and pupils.  The money will be used to support after-school activities."

Police Community Support Officer Emma Billett, the Safer Schools Officer for Chantry, says, "It was great to see young people taking an interest in keeping their property safe.  I am really pleased that Chantry managed to get the most pupils to sign up and I will be continuing to encourage others to sign up."