Rogue travellers nabbed

The operation was mounted on at the Bexhill-Hastings boundary on at Glyne Gap last Thursday.

Between noon and 6pm Police mounted check points to try and catch travelling criminals or disrupt their activities.

Inspector Dick Coates said: "We all know that local criminals have a pool of cars that they all use to commit crime in the area.

"This operation was designed to target them and catch them in their criminal activities or disrupt them.

"Many of them have no documents or tax and by working with Hastings council we had the capability to remove cars from the owners if we stopped any without Tax.

"A large amount of cars were stopped. Not all of these were being used by people with criminal intent.

"We tried to target the cars we stopped through intelligence and by having spotters at strategic points.

"This was not always the case and some innocent members of the public were stopped but all were very supportive of what we were trying to achieve once it had been explained to them.

"I would hail the operation a success. One male was arrested for theft. Intelligence gained has lead to the arrest of two further people.

"Seven vehicles were detained for tax offences and removed from the roads.

"A number of people were found to be driving without a licence or insurance and they were dealt with. A good amount of intelligence was gained about the travelling criminal and this will help us further target our resources in the right direction.

"This operation was not targeted against the law-abiding driver. But officers had to deal with minor motoring offences if they came to light once a vehicle had been stopped.

"I hope to run similar operations in the future and plan to target the minor roads between the two towns as well as the main A259.

"We tried to move stopped cars off the road so we did not cause any delays on the busy Bexhill Road.

"If we did cause any minor delays I do apologise for that but feel what we achieved was worth it and hope the public support us in that."

The police operation was carried out in partnership with Rother and Hastings councils.