Local Police Newsletter

Hello and welcome to our April edition of the newsletter. Below are some of the things that the team have been doing over the last month together with useful information for you.

Rural crime
Throughout March we have had some great success in locating and recovering several items of stolen machinery and trailers. Many of the items had been stolen in our areas and located within a few miles. The items have included a trailer and digger, a 3 axle trailer and a single axle trailer. Due to the criminal activity our team and the Crewkerne and Chard NPT have completed a rural crime operation over a period of a week. The theft of a digger and trailer was prevented by the Crewkerne team and a vehicle was seized as part of the process. Many vehicles were stopped and checked, with over a 1000 miles covered by the Somerton and Wincanton team over 3 nights.

Ilchester
A proactive operation to stop vehicles was completed in Ilchester on 4th March, with several vehicles being seized as a result of document offences.

Scams
Royal Mail – Scammers are sending text messages to mobile phones stating that a Royal Mail parcel is due for delivery, but a postage fee needs to be paid. A link will be provided and you will be asked to enter your card details. The scammers will then call within days claiming to be your bank and saying that transactions have been made. They will then take you through a process and try to trick you into transferring money into a 'new' account that they have createdfor you.
DON'T DO IT!
It has become apparent and you may have seen or heard it in the news that organised gangs are doing something called number spoofing. This is where they call you and their id shows as a number that would be linked with your bank. They may tell you to look at the back of your bank card and the number will match that on your phone. Do not cancel or create a new account over the phone. Make sure that if you are told there has been a fraudulent transaction on your phone that you either hang up and call the bank yourself or go into the bank in person.

Wincanton police station
Wincanton station is still set to move out of the council offices, however a date has not yet been confirmed. Once we have a date our corporate communications department will publish the information. We have recently welcomed a new PCSO to Wincanton, PCSO Dan Humphrey who will
be covering Wincanton town. And we look forward to welcoming another 2 PCSOs to the neighbourhood team, PCSO William Mortimer and PCSO Louise Perry.

Caravan registration
CaravanID Limited is one of the latest companies to join Secured by Design(SBD), the official police security initiative. CaravanID is a community driven crime prevention and property recovery initiative tackling caravan and motorhome theft. The company's scheme provides its members with unique and highly visible ID markings for their vehicles that can be looked up via their free to use online facility, offering identification and usage information to members, police and
relevant parties. Members can update their profiles in real-time ensuring the information about
their van is always current. Secured access for registered police officers gives them the ability to check any members van quickly and contact owners.

CaravanID members receive a pack containing up to 16 decals (60 individual stickers) bearing a unique and easy to remember identification number. These can be affixed to the front, rear, both sides, roof and windows of your caravan ensuring full 360 degree identification. The external decals are designed to be seen and read from a reasonable distance making the caravan uniquely and easily identifiable. The rear decal (available in 7 colours) is highly reflective making it really stand out at night. The large roof decal is ideally placed to be seen by traffic cameras or police patrols on elevated vantage points. With so many identifying marks, the caravan is a lot less attractive to
opportunist thieves who have the option of spending hours removing the decals or risk being caught with an easily identifiable stolen van. CaravanID's Secure Caravan and Motorhome Registration Scheme have achieved the Police Preferred Specification. You can find out more about it here :