DAY 69: Windsor and Maidenhead operation result in stolen iFor Williams trailer recovered

The Windsor and Maidenhead Local Policing Area began their winter phase of the 100 days of action on Monday (3/2).

On Monday (3/2), two neighbourhood teams from each town got together to do a joint initiative targeting offenders on the roads.

A mixture of mobile ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras and live feeds from the Force ANPR Unit on the static cameras in Windsor and Maidenhead resulted in numerous stop checks on vehicles and vehicle occupants for road related offences.

Tuesday (4/2) saw the teams run a proactive operation in Windsor in the morning and the Cookham area of Maidenhead in the afternoon. 

An Ifor Williams trailer was found and seized as it is believed to have been stolen. Officers are currently making further enquiries.

On top of this, a number of stop checks were carried out in Windsor and a vehicle seized for no insurance. 

The team also reported that valuable intelligence about drug and prolific offenders was also gained throughout the morning.

In the afternoon over in Cookham, one vehicle was seized because the driver had no insurance, a driver reported for summons for no tax and another reported for summons for using a hand held mobile phone while driving.

While the aim of this week’s activity is to concentrate on fighting rural crime, operations like this show that other offenders can be caught in the process because you never know who will be driving by!

Using ANPR cameras can disrupt and prevent crime in rural areas by pulling over vehicles of interest, or those which have been highlighted as ‘used in crime’ previously.

 

DAY 6 Chiltern and South Bucks find stolen Ifor Williams trailer

Chiltern and South Bucks began the first of their summer five days yesterday (5/8) patrolling alongside Datatag representative, Nick Mayall.

While patrolling the village of Ashley Green just north of Chesham, Nick spotted what he thought looked like a stolen trailer. 

The recovered Ifor Williams trailer



“The first thing I noticed, from about 20 yards away, was that the laser etched security code,which are always on the chassis on Ifor Williams trailers, had been welded over.”



The laser etched security code, standard for Ifor Williams trailers had been welded



On closer inspection, it was discovered that the serial number on top if the A frame had been ground off and the chassis plate had obviously been tampered with, quite clear and obvious signs of a stolen trailer.

A tampered chassis plate



The serial number had been ground off

 Although no arrests have been made in connection with the stolen trailer yet, the trailer has been recovered and will be taken to the TVP vehicle examiner to restore the original security code and of course, find the real owner!

Sgt Melvin Mutch, from the Amersham Neighbourhood Policing Team (and recent 2 time gold medallist at the World Police and Fire Games 2013, round of applause please!!) said: “This is great example of how Datatag can work in partnership with us to combat thefts of farming and agricultural property.

“Their knowledge about farming equipment is extensive and they have passed on specialist advice to our officers about what to look out for on tampered or potentially stolen farming machinery.

"This advice is incredibly valuable to the team while we continue to tackle rural crime.”