100 vehicles stopped in swoop on Wyre Forest traders
Operations to clamp down on rogue traders in the Wyre Forest district will be staged by police after 100 vehicles were stopped in the latest initiative.
Officers joined forces with Wyre Forest District Council, HM Revenue and Customs, VOSA and Worcestershire Regulatory Services to stage the four-hour operation recently.
Marked and unmarked police vehicles – some equipped with automatic number plate recognition equipment – intercepted vehicles and directed them to a test station where they were checked.
And following the success of the scheme, officers today said further operations would be held in the future. The operation focused on rogue traders – criminals posing as tradesmen who offer to carry out maintenance and work on homes. Often the work is carried out to a poor standard with victims charged inflated prices or even asked to pay up front and the job is never completed.
The operation also targeted illegal scrap metal collectors. Police said one driver had been arrested for driving while disqualified and had his vehicle seized. A further three vehicles were seized due to having no insurance.
One driver was fined £580 as a result of using illegal red diesel in the vehicle. The fuel is for agricultural vehicles only. Two further drivers were reported for having driving document offences, one for not wearing a seatbelt and another for using a mobile phone while driving.
Another did not have a valid tax disc.
Four vehicles were prohibited for being overloaded while three others had insecure loads and another did not have an operator's licence. Seven more were found to have various mechanical defects. All these were not allowed to continue with their journeys until the problems had been fixed.
Information received on one vehicle believed to be used by a rogue trader was stopped and officers from Worcestershire Regulatory Services are making further inquiries into the two occupants.
Pc Andy Wallace, of West Mercia Police, said: "We know from experience these operations are very effective and send a strong message to those intent on committing rogue trader type offences that we won't tolerate it. More checks are planned."
