Villagers urged to be aware as criminals target rural districts

The warning comes after a spate of burglaries at stable yards in the East Riding, where there has also been a growing number of thefts of scrap metal and heating oil and diesel as a result of spiralling fuel costs.

In the most recent incident, £6,000-worth of riding equipment was taken during a break-in at a tack room in Garton-on-the-Wolds, near Driffield, including four jumping saddles, a dressage saddle, and a number of leather girths, breast plates and bridles.

Tack worth £300 was stolen when the door of a Land Rover was forced open in Thornholme, Driffield, and a range of items worth more than £4,000 was taken in burglaries at two stable yards in Anlaby and Beverley.

In an attempt to raise awareness and support ongoing initiatives such as Horsewatch and Farm Watch, Humberside Police is launching a new campaign aimed at cutting rural crime and deterring criminals across the East Riding.

The launch will be accompanied by the publication of 500 booklets later this summer aimed at encouraging residents and businesses to become more security-conscious.

PC Julie Turrell, wildlife crime officer and rural officer for community policing, said: “We haven’t seen a really significant increase, but we have seen a slight increase and it’s just to educate people in rural communities that we are still a very safe place to live but we just need to be a little more aware that opportunist criminals will take advantage of rural areas because it’s quiet and relatively unpopulated.

“We need to be a bit more savvy when going out and leaving the door unlocked.

“In cities people are more streetwise than people in rural communities because they think they live in the middle of nowhere, nobody is going to see what’s going on.”

Mrs Turrell said one of the reasons rural communities had become more vulnerable was the fall in the number of people employed in local agriculture.

She said: “Historically, there were a lot of farming communities but we now have villages where a lot of people commute to work and a lot of houses where people are out at work are empty.

“The families that used to be working on the farm were always about; that doesn’t really happen now.

“What we want to do is increase general home security, outbuildings and estate security.

“Other issues we are facing are fly-tipping, illegal travellers’ pitches and illegal off-roading.”

Officers do believe they are having some success, however, in changing the perception of the East Riding as an easy target for poachers.

Offenders have been known to travel with dogs from as far as Scotland, Lancashire, the North East and South Yorkshire, but there are now a number of cases going through the courts for hare-coursing and badger-baiting – a practice which Mrs Turrell called “barbaric”.

She added: “It wasn’t particularly a policing priority so they would come here to do their activities, go and not get dealt with.”

The rural crime team is also supported by the rapid deployment of colleagues in the roads policing and dog sections.

Mrs Turrell and her colleagues will be at Driffield Show on July 20 to offer security marking of farm machinery and vehicles.

This is partly in response to a number of thefts of a particular model of 4x4 vehicle, the parts of which are very difficult to trace once the vehicle has been stripped down.

Officers are also offering advice to people on what steps to take to keep them and their property safe.

For more details call PC Julie Turrell at Hornsea Police Station on (01964) 530320, or email [email protected].