200 arrested in crime crackdown

POLICE in Rotherham have arrested more than 200 people and recovered around £300,000 of property under a crime-busting crackdown.

Officers detained 217 suspected thieves and burglars between October 1 and January 8, resulting in 86 charges.

They have also retrieved several tons of electrical items, vehicles, weapons and drugs since September.

The arrests were made under Operation Canberra Rotherham’s branch of a South Yorkshire-wide Operation Lockdown.

Det Sgt Steve Brookes of Maltby CID said that officers had achieved “excellent” results despite budget cuts.

DS Brookes said incidents of burglary in Rotherham had fallen to two or three per day.

“That’s still two or three too many,” he added, “but for a town the size of Rotherham it’s very low.”

Police figures comparing April to December 2013 with the previous year show an eight per cent fall in burglary across South Yorkshire.

This includes a ten per cent drop in house burglaries and a three per cent fall in vehicle crime.