Road Crime Team arrest ten in three day operation to tackle vehicle crime

Last week, our Road Crime Team led a successful, coordinated response involving police teams across the force, to tackle vehicle crime and criminality on our roads, which resulted in ten arrests.

Between 26 and 28 September, the Road Crime Team worked with colleagues from Operational Support Group (OSG), Roads Policing officers, Dogs Unit and Armed Response Unit to focus on disrupting individuals involved in the theft of vehicles in Essex through enhanced use of intelligence to identify perpetrators and to stop those committing road-related crimes.

Sergeant David Woods, who led the response, explained:

We’re continuing to focus on tackling car crime across Essex.

We understand the impact of car crime on our residents and businesses, and that’s why car crime is a priority for us. 

During those three days, we arrested ten people, seven of those arrests were related to theft of motor vehicles or cloned vehicles and we recovered two stolen vehicles which will be forensically examined to assist our investigations.

A further two cars were seized as they were believed involved in crimes.

While we were proactively patrolling the county, we continued to target drivers who broke the law. We issued 15 traffic offence reports at the roadside for a variety of offences to keep the roads safe for everyone.

But our patrols also give us the chance to gather intelligence that we can use to direct our patrols and future policing activities.

That intelligence helps us build a better understanding of what is happening across the county, gather evidence and identify patterns of offending and we will use it to target our resources to where they are most needed and will be the most effective.

Our Stolen Vehicle Investigation Unit is a unit dedicated to identifying and disrupting organised vehicle crime groups.

Last year (2022), they recovered or identified 626 stolen vehicles or vehicle parts – a 30% increase on 2021, with an estimated value of £14 million. They also worked on 34 investigations into chop shops.

If you have any information regarding stolen vehicles or have information about anyone who is involved in handling stolen vehicles, contact us.

Anyone with information should contact us as soon as possible.

You can let us know by submitting a report online or by using our Live Chat service. 

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