Newark and Sherwood neighbourhood and response teams clamp down on auto-crime in the district

A police quad bike, 4x4 vehicle, capture lorry, undercover HGV drivers, drone team and thermal imagery were some of the tactics used by police in a clampdown on auto-crime.

Newark and Sherwood neighbourhood and response teams have plunged resources into tackling auto offences in the last six months, something district commander Inspector Heather Sutton said was one of the district’s most prolific crimes.

Operation Magna­ has now been incorporated into the teams’ daily business.

“The biggest issue for the area was identified as auto-crime, which includes diesel theft from lorries parked on the A1,” said Inspector Sutton.

“The corridor between Harworth and Newark was recognised as a hotspot for this, as well as curtain sider thefts from vehicles parked overnight.”

The operation saw a man charged with theft and is due to appear at court later this year, while another was given a caution for handling stolen goods.

It also resulted in a wanted man on recall being sent back to prison after he was arrested on suspicion of theft of a motorbike.

The police teams have also been concentrating on theft of tools from vehicles, deploying a capture van over a number of weeks and operating visible and covert patrols on a regular basis.

In addition, the neighbourhood team has produced an analytical product looking at the auto-crime picture across the district during the last six months to help focus attention in the right places.

Inspector Sutton said: “We have been working really hard across the district to identify issues for our local communities and come up with sustainable ways of how we are going to tackle them.

“My teams have really stood up to the challenge and I would like to thank everyone one of them for their hard work.

“I would also like to thank local people who have communicated with us and worked together with us on certain issues.”

The team’s work on auto crime follows the launch of Nottinghamshire Police’s What Matters? survey, encouraging communities across the county to have their say on what police in their area should be focusing their efforts on.

The online survey, which takes a few minutes to complete, can be found at www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/whatmatters