By Victoria Brenan

Published at 12:05, Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Cumbria police have been targeting scrap yards during a crackdown on metal theft this week.

DCI Bob Qazi

Visitors to the yards were checked, together with records of business and vehicles going in and out.

The two-day crackdown was launched following a rise in the number of metal thefts across the county earlier this year.

During yesterday and Monday, police teams were out in the St Aidan’s area of Carlisle doing checks on vehicles and visiting yards in the west of the city.

They were also investigating scrap yards in Brampton and a mobile patrol was checking those in the Eden area.

In west Cumbria, officers set up check-points on the A66 and A596 to stop vehicles travelling to scrap metal merchants in the Workington area.

Detective Chief Inspector Bob Qazi, the force lead against metal theft, said it was important they kept up the hard work which has been going on throughout the year to tackle metal theft.

“People who believe that they can steal what they want, knowing that they are causing vast amounts of damage should not be allowed to get away with it and part of our job is to stop the theft and make it as hard as possible for them to sell the metal,” he said.

DCI Qazi said the scrap yard owners were supportive of the efforts being made and the appealed to the community to remain vigilant.

“With the dark nights drawing in, this provides more opportunities for these kinds of thefts and the community can help by being our eyes on the ground and reporting anything suspicious they see so that we are able to take immediate action,” added DCI Qazi.

“By working together we can protect our community buildings and schools and stop these criminals from causing heartache to those who are affected.”

Figures showed the work was paying off, after metal thefts dropped from 61 offences in April to 34 in May.

Cumbria Police said that a campaign had been launched across the north west of England, with officers linking up with local authorities and law-abiding scrap metal dealers to tackle the problem.

Almost 85 per cent of dealers in an area including Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside signed up to the crime-busting scheme which sees those selling scrap metal providing photo IDs and proof of address.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk