Ryan Jenkins thought hard about where to open the second office of his successful business. In the end, he chose Manchester over London for the next branch of his chartered accountancy practice.
Family Relocation and Initial Success
His wife and three children relocated last year from Glasgow where he opened his first office, and it proved to be a smart move. The second, in St Peter’s Square, has flourished.
His family settled well in Didsbury with his children attending local schools and taking to their new home. But on Saturday, the family will be moving back to Glasgow for good after becoming another crime statistic in south Manchester.
In March, the Manchester Evening News reported that seven out of every 100 burglaries in Greater Manchester are solved—a vast improvement on two years ago. The region’s conviction rate is almost double the national average. Home Office figures show that across England and Wales, the proportion of burglaries resulting in a charge fell in the year to 3.9 per cent—fewer than one in 25 reported burglaries—from 4.6 per cent in 2022.
In Greater Manchester, police say progress is being made in reducing the number of burglaries and catching the culprits. Data for commercial and residential burglary to the end of February 2024 shows reductions continuing, with nearly 4,000 fewer victims in the most recent 12 months compared to the previous 12 months.
The Burglary Incident
But Ryan, 35, and his family are not waiting to see if the thieves who broke into their home on Dene Road, Didsbury, are caught. The impact on the family has been so great they are leaving this weekend. The street where they live is a long tree-lined avenue and was one of the locations for the popular Manchester-based drama, Cold Feet.
Ryan, 33, said: “In June 2023, we relocated from Glasgow to open up a second office and it is flying. I have a successful business in Glasgow and I thought I would move down with my wife and three kids to make a go of opening up a second office. It has gone really well in the last 15 months. The children and my wife have loved Manchester until three weeks ago.”
In mid-August, a gang struck at their semi-detached rented home. “We had gone to a villa in Spain for the summer holidays and we always go for four weeks. Three weeks into the holiday I woke up one morning and had a message on my phone from 2 AM notifying me that my car had been moved—it had a tracker on it. My cars had been stolen and my house in Didsbury had been broken into.”
Thieves took Ryan’s Aston Martin DB11 in gun-metal grey—like James Bond’s in the films—and his wife’s distinctive black VW Tiguan R-line, which has black trim wheels. Inside the property, they took cash and a Chanel handbag worth almost £9,000. The Aston Martin was later found parked in Bridgewater Road, Altrincham.
It is believed a three-strong team of burglars carried out the raid. Ryan said: “Police think the house was broken into in the early hours of August 21st. At 2 AM, three guys were caught on CCTV walking by in balaclavas—45 seconds later the cars are taken. It is thought the break-in was done earlier, they got the keys, and then they came back with more men to drive both cars away. At 1:45 AM, a person on a bike rides past who is suspected of being a spotter making sure we were not in the house before they came for the cars.”
“We are relocating back to Glasgow on Saturday. I have three children, aged 15, 12, and five. The challenge we have is that the five-year-old and 12-year-old will not sleep on their own since this. They are innocent wee kids and I just made the decision with my wife. We still have a house in Glasgow and we are going back. We just don’t feel safe in the house, even though it is a beautiful area and the people locally are fantastic. The schools are really good too but we just can’t stay because we have been targeted.”
“My second branch office in Manchester will carry on. I will just have to commute to build a team to run it. It will take me longer than planned to do that now. I feel quite gutted really about having to go back. I will also be out of pocket by about £20,000 in what we have lost; having to fly back from holiday early; and moving back from one city to another; and having to pay the landlord for a month’s rent even though we will not be down here from the weekend.”
“We chose Manchester for three reasons—its proximity to Glasgow—it is just 200 miles away. Also, I have family who live in Salford and geographically it is a good place to have a business—which has been proven in the time we have been here.”
“The bag they took had huge sentimental value. I saved up to buy it for my wife on our anniversary last year. It is a classic black Chanel bag and cost £8,750. I built up my business from scratch but something like this makes you want to give everything back and have a simple life. My mum says you employ seven people and you have responsibility, you have worked hard why shouldn’t you have some things to enjoy your life.”
“But this has had a huge human impact on the family. We will recover but nothing will ever be the same. I was raised in Parkhead in the East end of Glasgow and I am afraid of no one, but I have to think of my family.”
Improved Burglary Statistics
In March, the Manchester Evening News revealed how there are now on average 1,039 burglaries a month—down from 1,371 a month in the previous 12 months. In Greater Manchester, if you are a victim of burglary, police are now much more likely to get a result, with 7.5 per cent of cases solved—compared to 6.2 per cent a year ago and just 3.7 per cent two years ago.
Around 12 per cent of all burglaries end in an arrest. In July 2021, the force committed to sending a resource to every domestic burglary across Greater Manchester in an initiative codenamed Operation Castle.
Operation lead Superintendent Chris Foster said: “Operation Castle has gone from strength to strength in the last two and a half years since it was launched and we have done this by increasing our focus on proactive policing. We continue to work on protecting victims by raising awareness of crime prevention techniques that can be adopted to prevent burglaries.”
