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Drive on truck theft leads 10 31 arrests
Page 7
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• Police arrested 37 people and recovered £600,000 worth of stolen goods and trucks in last week's crackdown on organised truck theft in the West Midlands.
In the largest blitz ever on truck crime, Operation Coppergold carried out 63 roadside checks involving 13 police forces stretching from Manchester to Wales and down to Northampton.
The 25 arrests made in the West Midlands alone were for offences including a stolen artic and trailer, a stolen 7.5-tonne truck and six stolen vans. One of the vans, a Mercedes Sprinter, contained a stolen truck engine. A triaxle trailer loaded with drugs was recovered and, on the M54, a van full of palletised beer—for which the driver and two passengers could not account—was recovered. "The day went very well. The results are quite pleasing and show the police take the issue of organised goods vehicle crime seriously," says Chief Inspector Tim Godwin, who coordinated the operation.
The police targeted vehicles with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) software to identify suspect trucks. Truck crime is estimated to cost the haulage industry around £100m a year, with a knock-on effect to the economy of £800m a year, according to the Freight Transport Association.
Since December last year, Operation Coppergold has resulted in a reduction in truckrelated crime of 9%, during which time West Midlands Police have recovered more than £1m worth of property.