Major rural crime operation results in several arrests
© Tim Scrivener Police stopped more than 70 vehicles and made several arrests in a multi-force crackdown on rural crime.
Operation Checkpoint, which is the biggest rural policing operation of its kind, involved police officers from six forces in the north of England.
Officers from Northumbria Police, Durham Constabulary, Cleveland Police, Cumbria Constabulary, Lancashire Constabulary, West Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Police ran the initiative between Wednesday 30 March and Friday 1 April.
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The crackdown resulted in several drug seizures and suspects being arrested.
đźš“We teamed up with partners to take further action against criminal activity in one of our biggest rural crime ops yet!#OperationCheckpoint saw vehicles stopped, drugs seized & suspects arrested – all part of our continued fight against criminal activity in rural communities. pic.twitter.com/UaGcHKLq43
— Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) April 1, 2022
Sergeant Mark Earnshaw, from North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Task Force, said: “By forces working together like this, we can really strengthen our approach to tackling rural crime.
“By sharing intelligence and resources, along with the invaluable information received from members of the public, targeted and robust operations like this continue to drive fantastic results.
“We hope this sends a strong message that rural crime is something we will not sit back and let happen – we will continue with a real focused effort to target those criminals who undertake this type of crime.”
Operation Checkpoint is an ongoing proactive initiative that targets suspected criminal activity to swiftly disrupt the organised network and protect communities by acting on local intelligence and emerging crime trends.
Two men sentenced over fatal quad bike theft
Two members of a travelling gang have been sentenced over a farm burglary in Cumbria in which a quad bike was stolen, and a third man died.
Carlisle Crown Court heard that a farmer reported a red Honda quad bike was taken from a shed on his farm in Alston at 9pm on 6 January 2020.
The quad bike owner was alerted by members of a Facebook Farmwatch group that his quad bike was being driven with no lights towards County Durham, followed by two vans.
During the pursuit, 39-year-old David Young, from Bishop Auckland, lost control of the quad bike and crashed. He was run over by an oncoming Audi A5 and suffered fatal head and neck injuries.
Keiron Heslop, 29, of no fixed address, was traced to the incident after officers found one of the vans was registered to him.
He and Shaun Murray, 43, of Billy Row, Crook, Durham, both pleaded guilty to burgling the Alston farm. Heslop was sentenced to 23 months in prison and Murray received an eight-month suspended sentence.
Analysis of Mr Young’s mobile phone found messages from 31 January saying “can you get us dropped off today for some bikes?”, which were sent to Mr Heslop.