Fight against crime takes to airwaves (From Gazette & Herald)

Fight against crime takes to airwaves

A STATE-of-the-art device is now being used as part of a simple scheme that relies on farmers' eyes and ears to slash rural crime in Ryedale.

Helmsley neighbourhood policing officer PC Ray Thwaites and local farmer Jane Medd, of Cowhouse Bank Farm, Carlton, established Country Watch a year ago after a spate of thefts.

In four months alone, £33,500 worth of quad bikes was stolen from farms and hundreds of sheep were taken by livestock rustlers from the Helmsley area.

A number of landowners are now using the Farm Guard System, an innovative security device that aims to catch rustlers in the act.

"A lot of people have had them fitted and they're running really well," said PC Thwaites.

Carl Meyer, of ERM Electrical at Claxton, near York, designed the covert system. It uses a buried probe, a battery and sensors to detect when a gate has been opened or perimeter fencing disturbed.

Within seconds, a 24-hour monitoring system is sent a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) signal of the location of the device and the address is given to the police.

The successful scheme is the subject of a BBC Radio 4 programme which will be broadcast on Saturday at 6.10am and repeated on June 16 at 1.30pm. It will also be available at www.bbc.co.uk.

There are several County Watch groups in Ryedale, and the Helmsley group has 40 members who are constantly on the look out for suspicious vehicles whose details they then pass on to the police. Intelligence from the group recently helped track a stolen car.

PC Thwaites said the eyes and ears of farmers had dramatically reduced the amount of rural crime in northern Ryedale.

"We still get thefts of livestock, but reports of other incidents have dropped off significantly, certainly around Helmsley they are non-existent," he said.

"Obviously we have a problem with hare coursing and at night-time people come and poach. The problem is that it's a seasonal thing; when the crops are growing, they don't go on the land, but at harvest time or at the beginning of the year they come."

PC Thwaites said he believed game, deer and livestock were poached especially to enter the food industry. There was a particular problem with deer poaching on the northern side of Helmsley in the Snilesworth and Hawnby areas, he said.

Criminals are warned of the Country Watch scheme being in operation with signs at the entrance to farms, warning motorists that their vehicle details may be recorded.

Updated: 10:48 Wednesday, June 08, 2005