North Yorkshire Police target rural fuel thieves

Criminals are travelling to rural areas of North Yorkshire from other parts of the country to steal fuel, police say.

A meeting of Scarborough and Whitby councillors was told police had used technology to "quite aggressively" target thieves.

Officers had deployed drones, pursuit vehicles and tracking devices.

At the meeting on Friday, councillors heard due to the rising costs of living there had been an increase in thefts of fuel as well as vegetable oil.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a member of the police's rural task force said that "dark nights" had contributed to an increase in commercial and business burglaries as well as thefts of machinery and fuel.

The task force has also been deploying "vehicles that are there to be targeted" and are fitted with devices which allow officers to "track where these things are going and potentially lead us to an address that is heavily involved in the movement of vehicles".

They added that due to the rising costs of living and petrol there had been an increase in thefts of fuel as well as vegetable oil, which could be used in certain types of vehicles.

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