**Busy start to the week with arrests made**

A really busy week so far and it's only Tuesday!🔏☺️

This week has started with us setting off running with a number of theft offences reported to us since the early hours of Monday morning.

At approximately 0300 hours on Monday morning we received a number of calls from our rural watch volunteers reporting that they had seen quad bikes, with vehicles following them on our rural roads in the Dales.

These calls always prick our ears up as we know that when quads are seen at this time, it more than likely means they have been stolen.

Officers from our response teams and specialist operations immediately headed towards the area where the quads were last seen, and also to areas where we believed offenders might have been heading to escape. Due to our close location to Durham, we linked in with our policing colleagues across the border who also turned out to see whether the vehicles and offenders ended up in their area.

Not long after this, Durham reported that they had been pursuing an Audi Q5 in the Staindrop area of Darlington that was later found abandoned. Checks revealed that this vehicle was registered to an address in Middleham. An early door knock was done with the owner checking, and confirming the vehicle had been stolen whilst they were sleeping.

Different Durham officers then reported that they were pursuing a male on a quad bike in the Shildon area that was also failing to stop for them. The male decamped from the vehicle, but was detained by officers and arrested.

Many hours later, and with a number of enquiries made, we established that two quad bikes had been stolen the same night from Hawes. We believe from what we now know offenders had first in the evening stolen the Audi Q5, then going onto steal the quad bikes, and headed back towards Durham.

This is a fast moving investigation, but the good news is we have one male arrested who is still in custody, and we have recovered the stolen Audi Q5, along with the two stolen quad bikes. Enquiries will continue which we hope will lead to identifying further offenders who we will also be arrested.

Next up, we received reports yesterday of three males in a Silver Transit van in Marrick. The males had been seen to enter a farm building, taking items from within, and piling up other items ready to collect. A local farmer challenged the males who unhappy with this, made attempts to steal his dog and the quad bike he was riding.

Officers quickly flooded the area, and with the registration of the van provided by the farmer, it was stopped with all three males still within the vehicle. Arrests were quickly made, and the males were interviewed and have been bailed for further enquiries to be completed. These bail conditions mean that the offenders are not allowed to enter North Yorkshire, preventing them from committing further crime.

Finally, at the end of last week we had reports of a Toyota Hilux that had been stolen from Hawes.

Officers began their investigation which included CCTV trawls of the area, intelligence analysis, and again working with our neighbouring Durham force to identify offenders responsible.

Yesterday, after piecing the puzzle together, we arrested a male from the Crook area on suspicion of theft of this Toyota Hilux. The Hilux has been recovered, and the male remains in custody.

This has been a really successful week so far, and although crime has been committed, we are keen to support our victims of crime, robustly targeting offenders, and bringing them to justice through the Courts.🚓

Your policing team including response officers, specialist operations, Neighbourhood Policing Team, Rural Task Force and CID will continue to work hard to keep North Yorkshire one of the safest counties to live in.

The Richmondshire NPT will be holding a number of engagement events in the coming weeks where we can offer crime prevention advice, discuss local issues, and also mark up your valuables with our property marking service.

To check when these events are taking place please check the North Yorkshire Police website, or if you would like a personal visit to discuss your security please email lauren.wilkinson@northyorkshire.police.uk

Sent from my iPhone