Crime clampdown on motorways

Police from Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire ran a joint operation to tackle road-related crime on the region’s motorways on Tuesday (13 September 2011) as part of Operation Hubble.

Seven arrests were made during the operation for a variety of offences, including burglary and possession of drugs and £3,500 cash was seized after an arrest for money laundering.

Twenty cars and vans were seized for no insurance or no licence, 71 fixed penalty notices were issued for various offences including using a mobile phone and not wearing a seat belt, roadside deposits worth £1660 were collected for drivers’ hours or excess weight offences and 10 drivers received prohibitions on the use of their vehicles. In addition, £3,310 of UKBA Civil penalty prohibitions were collected.

This operation is the first regional operation that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has led since joining the North West Motorway Policing Group in June 2011.

GMP Chief Inspector Rachel Buckle, said: "The aim of the operation was to reduce crime and ultimately save lives when people are driving carelessly on our motorway network.
“This will be the first of many of these collaborative operations. We know that the vast majority of people use the roads legally and want the roads to be as safe as possible. It is because of this that we will continue to take action against criminals.

“We are committed to tackling cross-border crime and we will continue to work with other forces to take action. We have the right skills, technology and resources to catch criminals and our officers will ensure that those who commit crime are caught.”