Insurance check leads to drugs discovery in car

A chance sighting of a car being driven without the right insurance resulted in police discovering large quantities of Class A drugs on board.

Officers from the county knife crime team were out on the roads in the Mansfield area when they ran a proactive check on a passing car.

Within seconds of running the details through an in-car computer, the system showed the person behind the wheel as not being listed on the insurance.

At that point, officers activated their blue lights and ordered the driver to pull over, which they initially ignored before eventually coming to a stop in Spencer Street, Mansfield.

After approaching the car at around midday on Tuesday (1 August), the team started to suspect the driver could be under the influence, so carried out a roadside drugs wipe, which tested positive for cannabis.

When the driver – who was found to not have a valid licence – continued to act suspiciously, a search was then carried out of the vehicle, which led to multiple wraps of Class A drugs being discovered.

A 27-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, drug-driving, failing to stop, driving without a licence, and driving without insurance.

PC Charlotte Appleby, of Nottinghamshire Police’s county knife crime team, said:

“Being out on patrol is an essential part of what we do as a team, because it allows us to spot and follow up suspicious behaviour that could be linked to criminal activity.

“This stop was a great example of the value of this approach, as by pulling over a car intelligence suggested was being driven illegally, we were ultimately able to seize quantities of Class A drugs and arrest a suspected drug-driver.

“Due to us being out on the roads as much as we are, it is inevitable that we will come across other criminal activity beyond just knife crime, and the discovery of one offence can lead to more, as this incident showed.

“While our main focus as a team is obviously to target knife crime offenders and weapon-enabled crime, everything we do as a team is with the aim of making our communities safer, so we’re pleased to have been able to help do that in this incident.”