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Suspects grabbed in?! Midlands
Page 10
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• Police have arrested four people in connection with a series of truck thefts in the West Midlands.
Three men and a woman, all in their mid-forties, were held in Willenhall as part of the West Midlands Police's crackdown on truck crime, Operation Coppergold. The police also recovered stolen property, trucks and vehicle parts.
Malcolm Appleby pleaded not guilty to handling stolen property at Walsall Magistrates Court and has been committed for Crown Court trial on April 23; two other men, Peter O'Mally and Ronald Ruck, were charged with conspiracy to handle stolen goods are due to appear at Crown Court on March 13. A 36year-old woman has been released on police bail pending further enquires.
These arrests come just weeks after 26 people were arrested and 2200,000 worth of stolen property was recovered during a day-long blitz on truck crime in the region, where police have begun to use automatic number plate recognition software to identify suspect trucks (CM13-20 Feb).
Detective chief inspector Tim Godwin says: "The Coppergold initiative has been a success and reaffirms the West Midlands Police's pledge to tackle truck park thefts and associated crimes. Anyone with information about truck crime should contact Crimestoppers."
West Midlands truck dealer Chris Kelly, whose Scania dealership has been the victim of a number of truck thefts recently, says: "There have been a number of arrests recently, which highlights the scale of the problem before the operation began."