A SECURITY camera installed a month ago to combat vandalism and car crime is ignoring the homes of people it was meant to protect.

Residents in Old Tovil Road, Maidstone, claim the device focuses its attention for much of the day on a local shop instead of scanning neighbouring homes.

One mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said car thieves were taking advantage of the situation confident they would remain out of sight.

She said: "Over the last two years our car has been broken into three times, the last time was a week ago. Two people also attempted to breakdown our kitchen door while we were sleeping earlier on this year."

"Understandably local residents felt we needed a CCTV camera along this section of the road and eventually it was installed. But to our despair it spends nearly all day and all night watching the local shop instead of the surrounding area."

"This is actually helping the local car thieves who continue to break into cars knowing that they are out of sight of the camera."

Maidstone council's cabinet member for community safety, Cllr Mike Fitzgerald (Ind)said he would look into the complaint but he insisted there had been a "significant" reduction in reported incidents since the camera was installed a month ago.