Poachers scared away after residents put up united front

As the winter poaching season draws to a close, Selby’s acting Chief Inspector Richard Abbott, said criminals are now shying away from the area following the re-launch of one of the force’s most successful operations in recent years.

Operation Jumbo was started in Selby in 2009, to tackle poachers targeting the area through the winter months. The first few weeks of the original operation led to officers conducting 114 searches and stopping 331 vehicles, resulting in 25 arrests and 12 vehicles and dogs seized.

It was kick-started again last October in a bid to combat rural crime, including barbaric blood sports such as badger baiting, which surges in winter as poachers hide under the cloak of darkness and crops are cut, leaving animals nowhere to hide.

This year has seen a dramatic drop in poaching incidents, in what Insp Abbott claims is the operation’s most successful year to date.

He said: “It’s been our best ever year. We have seen fewer incidents so it must be working. Those that have committed the crime have felt the full force of the law. We have arrested them, seized vehicles and seized dogs.

“We have had massive support from the rural communities. That’s why it has been such a great success.

“The police and the public have been working together and it is scaring poachers away and making them think twice.

“We have a rural watch system and a ringmaster system and support from gamekeepers, landowners and farmers who come out on patrol with us, which means we have a better chance of catching them.”

Insp Abbott also puts this year’s success down to officers boosting their knowledge of rural crime legislation, as well as an increase in support from the force.

But while maintaining the number of incidents has fallen, Insp Abbott said there was still an issue with criminals travelling into North Yorkshire from other parts of the country and targeting rural communities.

He said: “The old-fashioned image of a poacher with a shotgun over his arm and a brace of pheasants in his hand isn’t the reality. People are coming from other counties, including Lancashire and West Yorkshire, and we have seen hare coursing, lamping, deer poaching and badger baiting. However, it’s been a lot less than previous years.”

Drawing parallels to a recent high-profile badger baiting case near Malton, Insp Abbott said Selby Police were currently awaiting a crown prosecution decision after three men from Doncaster were caught digging a badger sett on the South Yorkshire border.

Last month four gang members, from York and Pickering, were jailed for 16 weeks for a barbaric attack which saw badgers mauled to death by a pack of dogs at Howsham in January last year.

An RSPCA inspector hailed it as a “landmark case” which was brought about after renowned wildlife artist and photographer Robert Fuller stumbled across the scene after hearing the animals’ screams.

Insp Abbott said: “We are still finding people are coming to North Yorkshire specifically to do this. It’s not acceptable and we will continue to do everything we can to prosecute these people. If they come to our area they run a really high risk of getting caught and we will do everything we can to ensure they receive the maximum sentence.”

Last year the Yorkshire Post revealed rural crime experts had warned rising commodity prices had led to poachers targeting an ever increasing number of animals and selling the meat on the black market. The launch of Operation Jumbo followed in the wake of stinging criticism of North Yorkshire Police by The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, which accused the force of neglecting rural crime across a huge area.