Carrying out proactive patrols across Colchester as part of our Christmas drink drive campaign, “Team Essex” arrest a driver wanted on recall to prison

On Sunday 10 December, officers from Colchester’s Local Policing Team (LPT) led officers from teams from across the force in a day of action to tackle drink drivers, in support of our Christmas drink drive campaign – Drink Drive. Together we can stop it.

LPT worked alongside Operational Support Group and Road Crime Team officers to tackle criminality on the roads within the district.

The proactive high visibility patrols saw two significant arrests: one person was arrested on suspicion of taking a vehicle without consent, failing to stop for police and dangerous driving. When officers stopped the car, a search of the vehicle found a large quantity of cash and and the driver was further arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

A second person as arrested after officers from the co-ordinated response team stopped a car on suspicion of drink drive. Roadside enquiries revealed the driver was wanted on a recall to prison.

Colchester Sergeant Dean Young, described the day’s results as “fulfilling.”

He said:

“My officers gained a lot of professional satisfaction from the day’s events.

“We helped people, kept them safe and caught criminals - the epitome of why we all join the job.

“We did that harnessing the enthusiasm and experience of officers from teams across the force, a Team Essex approach, that saw officers work together, to support each other, to tackle anti-social driving and criminality on our roads.

“The results speak for themselves.”

Further successes on the day saw four vehicles seized for no insurance, two traffic offence reports issued and five stop and searches.

As an operation to tackle drink driving, thankfully, five drivers who were breathalysed proved negative.

Sgt Young added:

“The message is getting out there, that we’re doing all we can during this month to tackle drink drivers.

“This isn’t a one-off exercise, we’re out there every day tackling crime and we will continue to identify and arrest drink or drug drivers who think they’re safe to drive. They’re not.

“We’d encourage the public to let us know of any drink or drugs drivers and we will deal with it to ensure everyone is safe on our roads, ahead of Christmas.”

At the beginning of December, we launched our annual Christmas drink drive campaign. We’re calling on the public to help us tackle this serious issue and remember the 3Ps if they suspect someone is about to drive and they are over the legal limit.

Prevent, persuade and police.

If you can’t persuade or prevent someone getting behind the wheel, call us, because - Drink Drive. Together we can stop it.

https://www.essex.police.uk/news/essex/news/news/2023/december/colchester-wanted-driver-arrested/