Melksham Police update Sergeant James Twyford

The main thing I want to write about this time is the success we’ve had with regard to our series of burglaries that were plaguing our rural South beat area. 

Since December, the villages around Bulkington and Poulshot have suffered with a number of theft and burglary offences, which we’ve ploughed hundreds of hours into both – patrols and secondary investigation. As a direct result of a tip-off from a member of the public, followed by some really excellent work by one of the response teams, we’ve charged Daniel Stacey of Widbrook View, Bradford on Avon, with 10 offences. He has been remanded to prison due to the prolific nature of his offending.

Whenever we publish crime prevention advice, there’s always someone who’s quick to criticise or complain that we’re somehow blaming the victims of these acquisitive offences. This couldn’t be further from the truth and this example really highlights the benefits to making your property identifiable.

Some of the property was identifiably marked, which not only helped us directly link the property to the burglaries, but allowed us to reunite the property with its rightful owners.

In other news; with the clocks changing and the weather improving we’ll be looking to focus a little more on the night-time economy and youth-perpetrated anti-social behaviour again, as is seasonal.

This is alongside a dozen other longer-term projects that the team are working on. We’re once again working with the town council and housing associations, to target a couple of ‘problem premises.’