A prisoner is led to a cell by a detention officer.

Today the Shropshire Star unmasks six of Shropshire’s most prolific burglars. Since they were jailed for a total of almost 17 years, police say burglaries in the county have plummeted.

But the never-ending war on the house raids, from which some victims will never recover, goes on. And for another suspected Shropshire burglar it’s about to mean an early morning wake-up call.

Except this time as two plainclothes CID officers turn up at his house in Telford, it’s not like a scene from The Bill. There’s no ramming the door down, no shouting, no resistance, no drama.

When Colin Bell and Andy Willford knock him up with a warrant, the door of his flat is answered by a woman in a dressing gown who says of the suspect: “He’s still in bed.”

Dean Paul Coppenhall, 25, of Little Dawley. Three years' jail for three burglaries on the same night

But our man doesn’t seem surprised to see the cops. When he does surface he tells them: “I thought you would have been here earlier.” On go the “fashion bracelets” and it’s off to the nick.

Nothing is proven yet, of course. The man in handcuffs on his way to the police station is merely a line of inquiry into another raid being dealt with by the special ops officers at Malinsgate. Their unit looks like what you’d expect from TV cop shows: detectives eat their breakfasts at their desks and a mobile phone goes off to the tune of The Sweeney.

On the wall is a rogues gallery of faces of prolific burglars who detectives call “pets”, with each officer assigned the criminal equivalent of a new best friend. This is where the business of catching pets begins.

“They are like pets,” says Inspector Paul Mathison. “You look after them and watch them.” There’s a joke that they are not just for Christmas either.

In the case of the latest county suspect, the arrest came after the car he had been driving, of which there are only a handful in the country, was spotted at the scene of a burglary in which a Mac computer and kitchen knives were taken. By chance the person who saw the car spotted it again outside the suspect’s home called the police.

Christopher John Round, 27, of Malinslee, got 30 months for burgling the same house twice in as many weeks

Shortly after his arrest he is brought by the back door into the custody block at Telford police station, dressed in a beanie hat, designer T-shirt and Nike trainers. He looks like anyone’s next-door neighbour.

Flanked by Detective Constables Bell and Willford, he is jovial, relaxed and seems to know the drill. He empties his pockets and is familiar with where the toilets are. A gambling man wouldn’t get long odds on guessing he’s been here before.

He’s fingerprinted and photographed and the interview room is prepared. “Another satisfied customer,” smiles one officer.

David James Lloyd, 23, of Newdale. Convicted of 23 burglaries. He was jailed for three years and four months.

Within a day, Telford’s latest prisoner could be making the short walk down a locked corridor to the magistrates court, or he could be out there living among us. But for now he’ll spend the next few hours, possibly days, banged up in a 12ft cell with the words “Anything else you want to tell us about?” stencil-painted in block capitals high on the grey wall.

The banging shut of a cell door might put the fear of god into most people. But clearly the reality for hardened burglars is different. “Here there are people who are more comfortable than they are in the real world,” says Inspector Mathison.

“It’s institutionalised and they know the regime – they wake up when the bell rings and have lunch at a set time.

“A lot of people on our list struggle in the real world and for some this is almost a relief – all they are thinking about is what mates of theirs are in prison.”

In the last 12 months there have been 700 burglaries in the Telford area – most carried out by about just 30 offenders who have almost 70,000 homes to choose from. Opportunists by trade, they go for the most vulnerable every time.

Darren Wayne Edwards, 30, of Dawley, Telford, got a 30-month jail term for burgling a house in Telford

But if an Englishman’s home is his castle, it seems the Englishman could do with fortifying his ramparts. People might argue that maybe we should be able to leave our doors and windows open, but do it and you run the risk of turning the glum faces above into beaming smiles.

How to burgle a house. Take a perfectly ordinary street in Wellington where all’s well in suburbia – that is until Chris Wild spots a front door that is wide open.

“You could be in there looking for car keys and be gone in seconds,” he says.

Gary Lee Wynne, 37, of Shrewsbury, got 30 months for burglary. He has been jailed on several occasions.

Chris, unsurprisingly, is not wearing a striped tunic, nor does he have a swag bag slung over his shoulder, but he does walk in the footsteps of burglars. It is part of his job to walk the streets telling householders how easy it would be raid their homes.

As a community support officer in a force-wide war on house burglaries, he thinks like them and uses his eyes like them – unlike the person whose leaves her front door open.

Meaning that for some lucky burglar, opportunity would not even have to knock. A wander down the street and within just a few minutes Chris and his CSO colleague Phil Haigh are having a field day, spying garden tools lying around that could be used for break-ins, old windows they could lift out in seconds and a ground floor window open.

“It’s only a narrow window, but a 14-year-old would be in there – and some burglars are only kids,” says Chris. The initiative might surprise some but it’s not dissimilar to the effective reverse psychology of the Home Office TV advert in which residents purposely put their laptop in the front window and their car keys by the front door.

One of the county’s latest burglary victims, Janet of Shawbirch, near Telford, had her home raided while out of the country.

She returned to find her home ransacked and belongings including a laptop and car taken. But the emotional fallout is longer-lasting. “There’s an anticipation that something might have happened every time you walk through the door,” she says. “I’m not a nervous wreck but it does make you feel vulnerable. In the middle of the night, if you hear a noise it panics you. I would not wish it upon anyone.”

Alan Bush, 30, of Brookside, is serving three years for a string of burglaries in Telford and north Wales

Acting Chief Superintendent Jim Tozer is proud of Telford’s burglary record, but he’s not complacent. “We have reduced burglary year on year to the point where if you commit burglary you stick out and we will catch you,” he says.

“On most occasions we wouldn’t claim to be particluarly ‘clever’ cops in terms of the tactics we use, but generally these aren’t clever burglars.”

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Edwards does not mince his words. Considering the people in the mugshots, he says: “At the end of the day they are criminals and they affect everyday ordinary people.

“These people aren’t organised criminals or yobs on the street, they invade people’s homes and as far as I’m concerned they are the worst criminals out there and we will carry on locking them up.”

Special Report by Ben Bentley