Police hunt down cross-border burglar and recover stolen motorbikes

A cross-border burglar was snared by police who also recovered motorbikes he had stolen and stashed in the back of a van.

The Ford Transit was spotted travelling at speed along the A632 Main Road at Langwith.

When an officer tried to stop the vehicle, his unmarked vehicle was reverse rammed and an occupant in the van got out and attacked it with a crowbar.

Following a pursuit, the van was found abandoned in the Warsop area a short time later.

Officers managed to gain entry and found three motorbikes which had been stolen from a garage in Heath, Derbyshire.

Mobile phone tracking led to the arrest of a suspect who was subsequently charged and convicted.  He was jailed for two years and three months.

The hunt for the burglar, which involved members of Nottinghamshire Police’s Road Crime Team during the early hours of 24 October 2022, features on tonight’s jam-packed instalment of Police Interceptors.

It comes as Nottinghamshire Police shines a spotlight this week on its ongoing proactive work, working closely with partners, to combat rural, heritage, and wildlife crime blighting local communities.

The force is supporting the National Rural Crime Action Week (18-23 September 2023), with a number of operations, events, and activities taking place across the county aimed at disrupting and preventing criminal activity and bringing offenders to justice.

The issues we’ll be tackling include:

• Illegal off-road biking and anti-social behaviour
• Illegal hunting, poaching, hare coursing, and fishing
• Speeding on rural roads and through villages
• Fuel theft
• Cross-border crime, including vehicle and plant machinery theft and rural acquisitive crime.

Proactive patrols will also be taking place during the week in hotspot rural and wildlife crime areas.

Meanwhile, on tonight’s show, two officers are extremely lucky to avoid serious injury after their police car is rammed on the M1, causing it to spin and hit a barrier at over 70mph.

Four police vehicles are damaged after being rammed during the pursuit of a Mercedes Sprinter van, stolen from an address in Sheffield and on cloned plates.

As the van heads further north, teams from Nottinghamshire join colleagues from Derbyshire and Leicestershire as they work together to try to bring the incident to a safe conclusion.

Catch all this, and much more, on Channel 5 at 8pm.