Kenilworth Watch

Sunday 16 February 2020 – 09.30hrs

Kenilworth Ford is flooded and the road is CLOSED. Please do not try to drive through the water as it’s UNSAFE and most breakdown services will not recover vehicles from flooded areas.

It’s been disclosed that Warwickshire Police detected 146 driver offences in a five day operation on the M40 that concluded recently.

During the operation known as Operation Tramline, police officers used a specially-adapted HGV ‘supercab’ owned by Highways England to observe driver behaviours in all vehicles and deal with any offences.

The vehicles stopped were a mix of domestic and commercial vehicles and out of 146 driver offences, 31 people were stopped for using a mobile phone whilst driving. The penalty for this offence is 6 points on their licence and a £200 fine. 

A further 37 drivers were stopped and dealt with because they were not wearing seatbelts. This can result in a £100 fine.

Fifty-six of the 146 vehicles were commercial vehicles.

Sergeant Stafford of the Serious Collision Investigation Unit at Warwickshire Police said “Vehicles travel at high speeds on the motorway network and drivers really need to concentrate on what they’re doing. The operation is about keeping people safe on our roads and we are looking for people that could pose serious danger to themselves and other road users. By stopping them and dealing with any offences being committed we hope to change their behaviour.”

Warwickshire Police continues to urge all road users to wear a seatbelt. Please don’t risk your life and the lives of other road users by not wearing one.

Since April 2019 Operation Tramline has detected over 400 offences on Warwickshire’s road network. These are drivers that could have caused death or serious injury to themselves or other users of Warwickshire’s Roads.

Warwickshire Police would like to thank Highways England for their ongoing support with Operation Tramline.

Warwickshire Police have arrested two men, aged 23 years old from London on suspicion of theft from vehicle and going equipped and a 28 year old from Stratford upon Avon on suspicion of theft following a roads policing operation that took place recently on the A452 and A46 near Kenilworth.

The men were initially stopped for no insurance as part of the roads policing operation. Officers also recovered number plates, four catalytic convertors, cutting equipment and car jacks from the vehicle after it was stopped on the A46 last week.

A 28 year old man from Coventry was also arrested for being wanted on warrant, after his vehicle was stopped and he was also taken into custody.

During the operation all vehicles stopped were taken to a nearby carpark where further checks could be carried out by officers and partners including Datatag, who check for stolen plant and equipment and HM Revenue & Customs who were checking vehicles for illegal fuel. Warwickshire Police would also like to thank Highways England.

As a result of the operation, three vehicles were seized for no insurance (6 points £200 fine), one vehicle was seized for no tax, three vehicles were prohibited from continuing on their journey until vehicle defects including brakes, brake lights and insecure loads were rectified by the drivers who were reported for the offences.

One person was stopped because officers had observed them using their mobile phone whilst driving (6 points and £200).

Inspector Jem Mountford said “The focus of these operations is to make Warwickshire’s roads safer and officers are looking for people that could pose serious danger to themselves and other road users. We are delighted at these results that demonstrate the types of offences being committed on Warwickshire’s roads network. The Serious Collision Investigation Unit will continue to look for people who could pose serious danger to themselves and other road users. By stopping them and dealing with any offences being committed we hope to change their behaviour and make our roads safer for the public as a whole.”

Residents are warned to be aware of the latest telephone scam that has occurred in South Warwickshire over the last few days. The scammers are getting very clever and sound very plausible. It’s really important not to fall for their trickery.

The latest scam involves a person who calls the householder about their water bill. A very convincing person who gives a Christian name rings saying they are from Severn Trent and they state the signature on the water bill direct debit is out of date. They say they will be sending out a new DD to sign but in the meantime they ask the householder if they could pay the “January arrears of £19” or a similar small sum as it had been declined by the bank.

The scam is to get the householders to give out their bank details. If householders do give out bank details they are likely to have their bank account cleaned out. In addition, if persons provide their bank details to a third party, even if it is a criminal, the bank is highly unlikely to reimburse the householder of any loss from their bank account,

The key message is:

• NEVER give your bank details to anyone, however plausible they or the circumstances might seem.

 

• Banks, Building Societies, water, gas, electric companies DO NOT ring customers and ask for bank details – so if you get such a call just put the phone down and stop the call.

 

• BE AWARE that if you do provide your bank details to another person then your bank is unlikely to replace any money stolen from your accounts.

 

• VULNERABLE or elderly persons can be especially at risk from this type of crime, if you look after a person who lives in their own or who maybe in one of these groups then please make sure they know to say nothing, just put the phone down and stop the call.

Kenilworth Watch commends the Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT’s) at both Kenilworth & Warwick who were busy throughout January carrying out the policing priorities set by the local community. In addition both SNT’s also focused some of their attention on the National Police Chief”s Council “Crackdown on Speeding” camp[aign.

Across the month of  January the two SNT’s between them checked some 2800 vehicles for speed at 78 separate speed check locations. 

• 193 drivers received a roadside warning about their speed
• 39 drivers were reported to the Police Traffic Section for further action
• 1 driver was arrested for providing a positive breath test (Drink/Drugs) 

Nationally, in 2017 inappropriate speed contributed to around: 

• 11% of all injury collisions reported to the police*, 
• 15% of crashes resulting in a serious injury* 
• 24% of collisions that result in a death*. 

This includes both ‘excessive speed’,when the speed limit is exceeded but also driving or riding within the speed limit when this is too fast for the conditions at the time (for example, in poor weather, poor visibility or high pedestrian activity).

Nationally, in 2015, a total of 217 people were killed in crashes involving someone exceeding the speed limit and a further 132 people died when someone was travelling too fast for the conditions.

Drivers and riders who are travelling at inappropriate speeds are more likely to crash and their higher speed means that the crash will cause more severe injuries, to themselves and/or to other road users.

Inappropriate speed also magnifies other driver errors, such as driving too close or driving when tired or distracted, multiplying the chances of these types of driving causing an accident.

The primary role of the police service is to protect life and property.

* – Source: ROSPA

BURGLARY 

Please be aware that between 1100hrs and 2015hrs on Sunday 2 February 2020 offenders have broken into the rear of a property at Thornby Avenue, Kenilworth. Once inside the offenders stole a quantity of cash and also items of jewellery.

This is incident 405 of 2 February 2020

PEDAL CYCLE THEFT

Please be aware that between 0700hrs and 1745hrs on Sunday 2 February 2020 offender/s have stolen a pedal cycle that was padlocked to a pole outside a property inFinham Road, Kenilworth. 

The bike stolen is a black Carrera mountain bike with 24 gears.

This is incident 359 of 2 February 2020

If you think you may have seen or heard anything suspicious or have any information about either of these incidents the please contact Warwickshire Police on 101 or alternatively you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111  

IN LESS THAN A MONTH from being launched Kenilworth’s new CCTV registration scheme has attracted over 50 residents to sign up. The scheme enables the local community and Warwickshire Police’s Safer Neighbourhood Team for Kenilworth to work closer together and potentially save hours and hours of police officers time.

A spokesperson for Kenilworth Watch said “We are absolutely delighted that so many people in Kenilworth have already signed up to this innovative and great scheme and we’d like to thank them. The more people and addresses that have CCTV that sign up the better because it can really help our policing team concentrate their time and resources.”

The register was designed by and has been in operation at nearby Finham Neighbourhood Watch in Coventry for some time and Finham NHW kindly offered to provide a system for Kenilworth.

The system does not request or have access to any CCTV systems, it’s simply a register that aids efficiency.  “The greater the coverage we can get by getting as many people signed up as possible, the more efficient our police officers can be in locating potentially useful CCTV images. We also believe that if we can achieve widespread coverage with a well populated CCTV register then it will also act as a real deterrent to criminal visiting our town and neighbourhoods” a Kenilworth Watch spokesperson added.

If you have CCTV and would like to resister or you want more details all the links needed can be found here:

How you can help deliver a step change in crime prevention and detection in Kenilworth