Rural police network braced to target winter evening poachers

With the nights now drawing in, rural crime experts are warning poachers will step up their forays into the North Yorkshire countryside as it gets easier to operate undetected.

There have been 16 arrests in the Selby district in the past seven weeks alone, while last week five men, a 20-year-old from Bradford and four from South Yorkshire, were charged with trespass and poaching offences after being caught driving through the countryside around Tadcaster just before midnight with three dogs that were later seized by police.

The men are due to appear at Selby Magistrates' Court on Thursday, November 25.

Officers say they are bracing themselves for the influx of poaching gangs coming into North Yorkshire over the next few months.

But due to the huge success of Operation Jumbo, which began in Selby last year to crackdown on rural crime and has since been rolled out force-wide after a dramatic reduction in offences, officers stressed that they are ready.

Pc Kevin Kelly, specialist rural and wildlife crime officer with North Yorkshire Police, said last month postcards were sent to dozens of known poachers with pictures of a prison cell and "wish you were here" written on the front, in an effort to deter them ahead of the winter months.

Pc Kelly, who helped organise Operation Jumbo, said: "As the nights are drawing in we are finding we are getting more offences.

"People come with dogs to take down deers at dusk when it is harder for the animals to see and with more hours of darkness it is definitely easier for poachers to operate.

"We are approaching the busiest time of year and it is going to put our resources to the test – but we are ready for them.

"We are stepping up patrols and we are determined to stop wildlife crime across North Yorkshire.

"A lot of the people committing these offences are known criminals who have long links to poaching and hare coursing.

"Now rather than waiting for them to come into the area we are being pro-active and targeting them.

"It has made a massive difference."

In the first few weeks of Operation Jumbo last year, officers conducted 114 searches and stopped and checked 331 vehicles, seizing 12 dogs.

This resulted in 25 arrests, nine people reported for summons and 12 vehicles also being seized.

In April this year, the scheme was extended to cover Harrogate and Richmondshire.

Police funding cuts have meant that the operation has been scaled back this year, but officers said they have now established a vast network of contacts across the North Yorkshire countryside that will ensure the poachers continue to be snared.

Pc Kelly said: "In Selby alone we have more than 300 farm and land owners who have signed up to the Ruralwatch programme and it is proving hugely effective.

"We have got a whole network right across the countryside.

"Any suspicious activity that people see is reported to us straight away.

"A lot of the time these poachers are being spotted as soon as they come into the area."

Despite the success of Operation Jumbo, North Yorkshire Police was accused in December last year by The National Gamekeepers' Organisation of neglecting rural crime across vast swathes of the county.

The organisation, which has 15,000 members in England and Wales, strongly criticised the force after criminal proceedings were brought against three gamekeepers in Swaledale who confronted two suspected poachers on their land.

All three gamekeepers were charged with affray but were cleared following a four-day trial at Teesside Crown Court.