Crackdown on rural crime

The Humberside Police force has launched a crackdown – named Operation Zephyr – aimed at disrupting and preventing illegal activity in rural areas of its patch.

Poaching and other rural crimes are often committed under the cover of darkness in the hours just before dawn, especially at weekends when offenders assume that no-one will be around to catch them. With vast expanses of flat arable land that can be easily accessed using 4x4 vehicles, East Yorkshire is a magnet for poachers, who often travel significant distances to commit crimes.

According to PC Julie Turrell, East Riding’s Rural Wildlife Officer, the operation sees officers stepping up patrols in crime hot spots and looking out for suspicious vehicles on rural roads. Automatic number plate recognition equipment is used to identify offenders’ vehicles so that they can be stopped in their tracks.

PC Turrell said: “We’ll be increasing the number of police officers on duty at the key times for poachers entering our area, which often tends to be Sunday mornings. Rural crime covers an array of issues, from poaching, hare coursing and fly tipping to the theft of farm machinery, tools, metal and fuel. Whilst poaching activity is taking place, it’s often common for these individuals also commit other rural crime.”

Operation Zephyr has the backing of East Yorkshire Farm Watch. Its members use a text messaging system to share information quickly when crime occurs so that members are on their guard.

PC Turrell said: “The Farm Watch Scheme, which encourages farmers to work together against rural crime, is supported by the police and gives us the ability to alert farmers to sightings of poachers in the area via text message, so that they can be on the look-out and report any further incidents.”

Rural rural has befallen Farm Watch member John Gatenby, who farms at Rudston on the Wolds.

He said: “It starts straight after harvest when the fields are cut leaving just stubble, but we find that poachers often move up into the Wolds during the winter because it’s too wet to get on land in lower lying areas, such as Holderness. They tend to come from urban areas and we’ve even had them from as far afield as Dundee. It’s because, in most cases, they’re hare coursing and trying to film it so that they can bet on it; there’s a gambling and money-making element to it. Poaching isn’t just about catching something for the pot these days.

“As well as walking and driving over fields of crops, they’ll drive straight through cattle fencing if their dogs are chasing something, which causes further damage and also stresses livestock.”

Last winter Mr Gatenby had 250 gallons of diesel stolen. Last weekend one of his neighbours found the carcass of a deer that had been illegally hunted on his land.

Mr Gatenby said: “Recently there have been five or six thefts from neighbouring villages; in one case they entered a farmhouse and stole the keys to a Range Rover.

“I’m afraid that the people who do this sort of thing have a different moral code to us and you tend to find that, as well as driving in an unconstrained manner across farmland, they’ll also take anything moveable. Intimidation doesn’t mean anything to them, so I wouldn’t advise trying to tackle these people yourself.”

Rural crime should be reported to the police, using the emergency 999 number if an incident is still ongoing and 101 to report evidence that suggests a crime has already taken place.

Mr Gatenby added: “We have a very efficient Farm Watch scheme in East Yorkshire and it’s no coincidence that 40 per cent of all wildlife crime in England is listed as having taken place here – it’s purely because we’re so good at reporting it. However, that’s also scary because it suggests that only a fraction of what’s happening in other areas is being reported.

“A surge in poaching and rural crime in neighbouring areas suggests that those responsible are now being pushed out of East Yorkshire to areas that don’t have these systems in place – because we’re making things more difficult for them here.”