Good afternoon,
This week we have continued to deploy officers on Operation Momentum in the City supported by resources from Armed Response Vehicles and the Roads Crime Unit. We are in the process of gathering evidence in respect of individuals causing anti social behaviour with a view to progressing them on the anti social behaviour pathway.
Operation Watchmaker 2 has been launched and is taking place in Chester City Centre and Cheshire Oaks. This is being lead by the Western Area Problem Solving Team and Area Investigation Team to target offenders committing retail crime. A range of tactics are being employed to identify and arrest offenders and the team are working closely with Chester Against Business Crime to target individuals responsible for such offences. I will keep you updated with the results of this operation. Whilst there is this focus on this area of crime, the City Beat Team continue to target crime and anti social behaviour throughout the City, providing a visible presence to detect and deter offences.
We have been carrying out some crime prevention work this week to raise awareness of courier fraud. Courier fraud occurs when a fraudster contacts victims by telephone purporting to be a police officer or bank official. To substantiate this claim, the caller might be able to confirm some easily obtainable basic details about the victim such as their full name and address. The caller may also offer a telephone number for the victim to telephone or ask the victim to call the number on the back of their bank card to check that they are genuine. In these circumstances, either the number offered will not be genuine or, where a genuine number is suggested, the fraudster will stay on the line and pass the victim to a different individual. After some trust has been established, the fraudster will then, for example, suggest;
– Some money has been removed from a victim’s bank account and staff at their local bank branch are responsible.
– Suspects have already been arrested but the “police” need money for evidence.
– A business such as a jewellers or currency exchange is operating fraudulently and they require assistance to help secure evidence.
Victims are then asked to co-operate in an investigation by attending their bank and withdrawing money, withdrawing foreign currency from an exchange or purchasing an expensive item to hand over to a courier for examination who will also be a fraudster.
At the time of handover, unsuspecting victims are promised the money they’ve handed over or spent will be reimbursed but in reality there is no further contact and the money is never seen again.
Anyone could be an unsuspecting victim of this type of crime so it is important that we raise awareness of this.
To assist with identifying potential methods of fraud a book has been produced to raise awareness. This can be found by following this link The Little Book of Big Scams – 5th Edition
We continue to utilise Residents Voice to identify the issues that are causing the public concern. As the survey is anonymous we try to feedback on social media the work we are doing to dela with these issues. Please continue to complete these surveys. Whilst it is called a Residents Voice survey, it is equally important we hear from those who work in the City, so this is open to everyone to complete. If you have completed it before, please complete it on a regular basis so we are kept up to date with the current issues that are causing concern.
The link to the survey is below, and should only take a few minutes to complete.
Resident’s voice | Cheshire Constabulary
I will be on leave next week so there wont be an update until the following week.
If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards,
James