Police detect eighty-three motoring offences during operation in Shirebrook

Officers from the Shirebrook Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team joined forces with the Casualty Reduction Enforcement Support Team (CREST), the Special Constabulary, police volunteers, Driver Vehicle Standards Agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and police vehicle examiners for the operation on Friday, October 21.

More than 100 vehicles were stopped during the checks on Meadow Lane, Shirebrook, and 83 offences were discovered.

17 vehicles were not insured, 14 drivers were not wearing seat belts, 10 drivers did not have the correct licence, five drivers were using their mobile phones and two vehicles did not have an MOT and a total of 21 vehicles were taken off the road.

The checks took place as part of the nationwide Operation Drive Insured initiative, a week-long campaign aimed at identifying and seizing cars with no insurance that were being driven throughout Derbyshire.

As well as in Shirebrook, other locations for stop sites in Derbyshire included New Mills, Derby and Allenton.

Sgt. Mark Church of the Shirebrook Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “The purpose here is not to shout out about how pleased we were about these results; it’s actually quite the opposite. We would be much happier if we had found zero offences because this would mean drivers were safe and complying within the law.

“Unfortunately there are too many drivers out there still willing to flaunt the law despite previous initiatives that the team have conducted in recent months. For this reason we will be carrying out a similar operation before the end of the year.”

Sgt. Church added: “I encourage motorists to make sure that they are driving safely and legally. Nothing would please me more than to find that people have taken on board this advice and for our next operation to show a dramatic fall from the fairly shocking number of offences we found here.”

For more information, or to speak to the Shirebrook Safer Neigbourhood Policing Team about this operation or any other issues in the Shirebrook area please contact them. You can do this by calling 101 or emailing [email protected].

You can also follow the team on Twitter: @ShirebrookSNT