Police arrest 48 in weekend sting

The sixth Operation Viper weekend of intensive police activity, which ran from Friday July 25 to the early hours of this morning, Monday July 28, saw 48 people arrested, 26 vehicles seized and two stolen vehicles recovered.

There were 17 arrests for a range of offences in the Leeds area including five people who were arrested on suspicion of taking a vehicle without consent, three people arrested on suspicion of burglary and three people arrested on suspicion of assault.

Four people were arrested on suspicion of aggravated vehicle taking in Bradford, three people were arrested on suspicion of drink driving and two people were arrested for possession of a firearm, going equipped and criminal damage. Two people were arrested on suspicion of theft offences in Wyke, with 21 arrests in the district as a whole.

There were two arrests for suspected drink driving offences in Castleford and Pontefract, two people were arrested on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle in Wakefield and one person was arrested following the execution of a warrant in Wakefield for breach of a court order.

One person was arrested on suspicion of an assault in Huddersfield and one person was arrested on suspicion of drink driving in Halifax.

Three people were also arrested who were wanted for offences outside of West Yorkshire.

Supt Pat Casserly, who is leading the operation, said: “The operation was deployed to curtail the anticipated rise in offending based on previous years’ crime profiles. The activity succeeded in keeping home burglaries to within the Force target of less than 27 per day. Across Saturday and Sunday there were only five burglaries in Bradford.

“This weekend’s activity marks another success in our continued crackdown on criminals operating across West Yorkshire. We have arrested over 200 people, seized over 175 vehicles and recovered over 20 stolen vehicles during the six intense Viper operations so far, that compliments the daily activity of the Viper Operation throughout the year.

“It is not all about getting people in the cells though but also about preventing crime by showing that we are out in force and ready to disrupt anyone looking to commit offences. The targeted deployment of resources and approach of taking the fight to the criminals is paying off with 400 less burglaries in the first three months of this financial year compared to last year.”