County police launch crackdown on gangs of travelling criminals

Police are anxious to prevent gangs of criminals from travelling across the north of England to prey on rural communities.

Today the first day of action will focus on policing the roads in a bid to target rural crime and criminal use of the road networks in and around the area. There will be more than 30 officers taking part.

Traffic police and car teams will be working with partners from the fire and rescue service, the Environment Agency and British Transport Police among others to stop, check and monitor suspicious vehicles.

Insp Richard Abbott said: “North Yorkshire is one of the safest places to live in the country and Selby is a very low crime area but we are always looking to reduce crime and the fear of crime.

“Selby district is a bit of an anomaly in that it borders three counties, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside, so we do suffer extraordinary levels of travelling criminals – the majority of whom, statistics tell us, come from the West Yorkshire area.

“We have had examples of criminals travelling a 300-mile round trip for poaching because we have an abundance of wildlife.

“And I am also aware of criminals deliberately breeding lurchers crossed with pitbull terriers to create a dog capable of bringing down deer. You can see them at game fairs across the county.

“We know who these people are, we know what type of vehicles they are driving and we know what they are after so my advice to them would be not to bother coming. If you do you stand a chance of getting bed and breakfast courtesy of Her Majesty’s police force.

“We have seen a reduction in the amount of poaching but we are not going to give up yet, there is plenty more to do. One of our aims of this operation will be to give a statement of deterrent”

He said liaison between police forces in Humberside, North, South and West Yorkshire was now much improved with regular meetings taking place between the forces to make sure optimum use was made of pooled knowledge.

He added: “We used to work by experience and we didn’t really talk but now we have a point of contact to exchange information. We are now working much more together and we give each other notice.”

In addition he said a successful scheme called Ringmaster to engage local householders had caught residents’ imagination. Insp Abbott said: “We alert them via text and members can also report their suspicions to us.”

A car registration can be quickly sent out to hundreds of people, helping police enormously.

Operation Birch will run throughout the summer on unspecified days designed to keep criminals on their toes.

Insp Abbott said: “It’s going to be a high visibility campaign, working in partnership to reduce crime and the fear of crime.

“Two years ago we reduced crime by 22 per cent and we have held on to this reduction. We have achieved another 3.4 per cent reduction over the last year and we want to maintain that performance.

“Following this operation we will be collating the results, arresting and prosecuting offenders.”

He said each time a day’s campaign was launched during the summer the police would mix and match their partners as to what was needed.

The campaign is due to run until September.

Two years ago the Yorkshire Post reported how organised gangs of criminals from across the country were targeting rural Yorkshire for wide-scale poaching.

Police said that their intelligence showed there was a criminal network operating throughout the north of England and extending as far afield as the Midlands. During Operation Jumbo 138 vehicles were stopped, searches of 47 people were carried out and five vehicles seized. Sixteen people were arrested.