Officers from the Met are hoping that an initiative involving the deployment of photo sharing site Flickr will help reunite owners of stolen goods with their property.

Following several operations, the Burglary Squad in the London borough of Lewisham found that themselves awash with recovered jewellery – and turned to the web to find its lawful owners.

Officers have now photographed all of the property and set up a Flickr page in the hope that the public will log on and come forward and reclaim their property.

The page, which is available through the Metropolitan Police website, Lewisham Burglary Squad Flickr site has had had more than 5,000 visits from as far afield as Oxford, Lincoln and Liverpool since its launch on July 27.

But officers have stressed that the initiative is running alongside more traditional means of making contact, including sending letters out to victims of crime.

Safeguards have been built into the system and anyone claiming property will need to provide proof of ownership. They will also need to make a statement.

Det Ch Insp Paul Astbury, spokesman for Serious Acquisitive Crime at Lewisham said his officers were using every tool available to identify as many victims as possible.

He added: "Using Flickr works and this has proved be the case in Camden. By making use of this technology we hope people will look through the images and recognise their property."