Upper Wharfedale Rural Watch volunteers catch poachers in the act

Members of the Upper Wharfedale Rural Watch - a volunteer group which works with North Yorkshire Police to monitor and prevent crime in isolated locations - were patrolling the Burnsall, Appletreewick and Greenhow areas when they stumbled across two men poaching rabbits.

The volunteers dialled 999 when they saw the men's Toyota RAV4 vehicle around midnight on July 23 and a police firearms unit responded within 10 minutes, catching the suspects in a field.

The two men have been issued with a summons to court and several items of equipment relating to poaching have been seized.

A rabbit and a hare were found on their persons.

The Rural Watch scheme has been hailed as a significant success since the police set up the volunteer teams.

There are now groups in areas such as North Craven, Upper Wharfedale, Richmond, Richmondshire, Bedale, Easingwold and Thirsk.

They help to tackle criminal activity prevalent in the countryside, such as quad bike theft, poaching, hare coursing and raptor persecution.

They have even taken part in checkpoint operations alongside police officers, stopping vehicles using the county's road network at night in suspicious circumstances.

Each Rural Watch group is equipped with police radios so that they can communicate with officers. Police, in turn, use the members' local knowledge to study criminals' movements.

They use their own vehicles for patrols.