Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner gives update on new rural crime partnership

The South East Partnership Against Rural Crime was launched at the beginning of March and involves forces from Sussex, Surrey, Thames Valley, Kent and Hampshire & the Isle of Wight.

During a performance and accountability meeting on Friday (March 15), Katy Bourne spoke to Assistant Chief Constable Howard Hodges, the force lead for rural crime.

The idea behind the partnership was to ‘make the region a more hostile environment for countryside offenders’.

ACC Hodges said there was ‘a strong commitment across all partners to strengthen efforts in combating rural crime’.

He added: “We recognise that rural crime is as important as crime that happens anywhere else and we recognise the vulnerability and the isolation that those living in the rural communities can feel.”

A Rural Crime Week was held before the launch which saw the teams cover a variety of areas.

They included work to protect endangered species – checking pet shops to make sure there was no illegal trading in protected or endangered animals.

Property marking was carried out at heritage sites in West Sussex and, in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, a wildlife worrying event was conducted.

Looking back on the work of the Sussex rural crime team over the last year, ACC Hodges said they had ‘delivered far more than the sum of their parts’, focussing on prevention, generating intelligence, enforcement and reassurance.

Among their success stories was the conviction of four men caught poaching pheasants in West Sussex.

They were prosecuted under the Night Poaching Act of 1828.

ACC Hodges said: “It’s really important that we recognise that those offences are occurring in our rural areas. It causes distress, it causes isolation, it causes economic loss.”

In another case, a man was arrested and made to pay to repair parking signs he had damaged in Ashdown Forest.

And in another, 27 reports were received about a woman’s dogs being out of control, worrying livestock, knocking people over, and chasing other dogs.

ACC Hodges said she was prosecuted after breaching the conditions of a community protection notice and was fined nearly £5,500.

The woman now has a criminal behaviour order banning her from keeping or controlling dogs for five years – if she breaches that she could go to prison.

To find out more about rural crime in Sussex, log on to www.sussex.police.uk