Major successes from crackdown

THIS woodchipper and ride-on mower — worth a combined £25,000 — were discovered in a metal theft crackdown.

British Transport Police were supported by the Joint Unit for Waste Crime in raiding premises in Rotherham.

The items had been stolen previous week, the force said after recovering £150,000 of items from across the region.

Supt Mark Cleland: “Our approach to tackling metal crime in the waste industry has been to work with enforcement and national infrastructure partners to disrupt crime and to identify those who use the waste industry to move stolen property.

“In the last 18 months, using this approach, we have made hundreds of arrests and recovered thousands of items of stolen property.

“The owner of the ride-on mower would have had to pay over £25,000 which he couldn’t afford, and he was going to wind up the business until he received the phone call this week that it had been recovered by our officers.

“The waste sector is key to keeping the country running and we continue to support those who run legitimate businesses.

“For everyone else, we’re looking at you, we’ll continue to make arrests, seize criminal assets and shut down illegal operations.”

BTP can be contacted on 0800 405040 or by texting 61016.