Police report 2 – 8 March 2019

by Lib Dem team on 11 March, 2019

From our local Police:

An update on incidents and work in the Cheadle & Bramhall ward for the period Saturday 2nd March to Friday 8th March.

Burglary continues to be the priority crime. Figures are down this week, though that will be no consolation to those who have been victims. There have been 14 recorded burglaries down from the 22 reported last week. The main drop has been in the south of the neighbourhood which may be down to the arrest and remand to prison of the gang behind some of the vehicle crimes. Heald Green, Cheadle Hulme and Cheadle account for 10 of the reported crimes. Vehicles or vehicle keys were stolen in 10 of the breaks. Several of the vehicles were later recovered in the Wythenshawe area. These vehicles had trackers fitted. The thieves will not know if a vehicle has a tracker fitted so they will park the vehicles up for a few days waiting to see if the owners locate and recover them. I am working with our Divisional Priority and Force resources to try and tackle the problem.

An 18 year old male was arrested following burglaries on Sudbury Drive and Levens Close. He has been interviewed but was released on bail as there are outstanding enquiries which need to be completed before the CPS will consider a charging decision.

There has been 1 robbery reported this week. This was particularly nasty. The victim was sat in her car on the John Lewis / Sainsbury’s car park at around 20:30 hours on the 7th March. The victim was approached by a male who produced a knife and demanded that she hand over her car keys which she did. The offender then drove off in the vehicle.

With regard to other news I attended a 3 hour input on Thursday promoting the ‘Friends Against Scam’s’ scheme. This is a national initiative, being led locally by GMP and Stockport Trading Standards, to raise awareness of the risks faced by our older population of being tricked out of their money. Typical scams range from the rogue roofers to more elaborate telephone and internet scams. It is expected that those who attended will go on to promote the scheme to a wider audience. Several of the PCSO’s attended and are looking to promote this with our local banks.

There were several reports of a large group of youths causing problems around Dairyground Road and Waterloo Road, Bramhall then later on in Cheadle Hulme. This all seems to have stemmed from a party that got out of hand. The group were later seen on the playing fields of Bramhall High School. PC O’Brien will do some follow-up enquiries this week to see if we can identify any in the group.

Kind regards

Rob Hawksley

Rob Hawksley
Neighbourhood Inspector Cheadle, Gatley & Bramhall
Cheadle Heath Police Station

   4 Comments

4 Responses

  1. John Hartley says:

    Just to add to the scams issue…. there is currently a fairly widespread scam (s) targetting British tourists who are looking to rent holiday villas in, mainly, the Canaries , but also other parts of Spain.

    The criminals are establishing entirely fraudulent websites, “cut & pasting” villa photos and descriptions from genuine sites. Prices will appear low, to attract punters, and the scammers insist on payment by bank transfer. Having taken people’s money for several weeks, the website then disappears, along with the money. Tripadvisor’s Tenerife forum has had several threads from people who have been conned out of their money. Usually, folk try and contact the “company” as they havent received any details of how to find the villa, etc – only to find the website has gone. A few have arrived in Tenerife, expecting to be met by someone, and it only then that they realise the scam and that they have lost what can easily be several thousand pounds.

    There are a number of things people can do:

    1) use companies which have a known reputation

    2) remember that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is

    3) check when a website was first set up (using one of the WHOIS sites). But be careful here – the scammers are getting wise to this and are buying up established but dormant websites.

    4) check if any company address seems “right” – one possible scam recently investigated by amateur Poirots simply used Google Streetview to discover an alleged travel agency in Tenerife was actually a laundrette. Use “reverse image” software to see if the photos of the villa appear on other websites.

    5) check if any other information the company offers, about itself or the villa, feels “right”. Criminals can be stupid – I’ve seen one site where they claim to have been in business for several years, but the website is only weeks old. If it doesnt feel right, run a mile – there are plenty of genuine companies out there.

    6) And, most importantly, never pay by bank transfer. Ever. There is absolutely no way of you getting this back if you have been scammed. Your commonsense will tell you that any reputable business is going to accept credit cards – pay with this and you have protection.

    I understand the British and Spanish police are both involved in trying to track down the criminals but it is difficult. Everything is bogus – the villas, the names they use, their addresses, etc. And they regularly close the bank accounts they’ve opened, “disappearing” the money through creative laundering routes.

  2. Jane says:

    So, now that our council tax has risen to £277 a month, i can expect to see lots more police in Gatley & Cheadle yes??

  3. Bryan Neill says:

    For this years enormous 13.8% increase in Council tax for “Police and Crime” I really do hope there is a demonstrable benefit and that the police are held to accountable…

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