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Midlands heads truck crime league official

13th May 2004, Page 8
13th May 2004
Page 8
Page 8, 13th May 2004 — Midlands heads truck crime league official
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Truckpol figures show the Midlands is the worst place in the country to leave your truck. Guy Sheppard reports.

A ROW has erupted over a new league table which shows that London and the West Midlands are suffering by far the highest levels of truck theft in the country.

During the first three months of this year, 11% of the 712 trucks stolen nationally were recorded by West Midlands Police and more than 9% by the Metropolitan Police.

Forces in South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire both accounted for 5.7%, says Truckpol, which is disclosing the regional breakdown of truck thefts for the first time. Confirmation that the West

Midlands is the UK blackspot for truck crime comes less than a year after the region's dedicated Operation Coppergold initiative to crack down on truck crime was wound up.

Chris Kelly,chairman of the Keltruck Scania dealership in Smethwick, near Birmingham, says lack of police funding is largely to blame for its demise. He claims the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association are failing to highlight this. "I have sent several protest messages to them recently but they are just sitting on the fence

and doing nothing about it," he adds. "The insurance industry simply increases premiums to pay for these thefts so it is business and private individuals who are really picking up the bill."

However, both the RHA and the FTA reckon they are very active in lobbying the government about truck crime. FTA spokesman Geoff Dossetter says: "There is pressure from us but that pressure is not as effective as we would like. We will continue and hopefully accelerate our efforts." Detective Sergeant Mark Hooper, head of Truckpol — which

now has the UK's only team of police officers dedicated to fighting truck crime — says it is a relatively low priority because problems such as burglary and drugs are of much greater concern to the public.

"The problem is that for every truck stolen, 10 motorcycles and 45 cars and vans are stolen as well." He adds that 45% of stolen trucks are recovered.


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