IT’S a distressing moment when a police car tails you and the blue lights start flashing, however one inspector explained it's not always a bad thing, and in some ways it's vital to tackling crime in communities.
On a cold and misty morning in late October, we stood with officers at the DVSA Weighbridge at the Coldra, next to the ever-busy junction 24 of the M4, where the latest mission in Operation Utah was held.
Utah is a combination of roads policing and fighting crime, with police cars and motorbikes darting back and forth on the the M4 bringing back any vehicles which may be unsafe for the road.
While this operation resulted in just a few insecure loads being made safe and a couple overweight vehicles dealt with, it’s the ‘deeming’ factor which became the hot topic.
Make no mistake, these operations catch criminals, with drug dealers and even murderers having been caught in roadside checks.
Inspector Leighton Healan, leading the operation, wanted to emphasise Gwent Police’s gratitude to the public for working with the force to ensure communities remain safe.
Inspector Healan empathised that road users can be pulled over in these checks when they’ve done nothing wrong, but he explained these operations are highly effective.
“First introduced in 2008,” said Inspector Healan, “these ops are more effective and more vehicles are covered as we continue to supervise the roads.
“We appreciate we bring people in who may not have done anything wrong and we are grateful to them for their time and bearing with us.”
During the operations, Gwent Police works in conjunction with partner organisations including the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the MIB – no not the Men in Black - the Motor Insurance Bureau, and it was with one of the members of the MIB that we discussed the topic of fake motor insurance.
Hayley Sutcliffe explained one of the concerning traits the MIB is seeing are people buying fake motor insurance from social media channels like TikTok and Instagram then setting off on the roads thinking they are insured, not realising they have been scammed.
Ms Sutcliffe’s advice - always check you’re buying your insurance from a major reputable insurance provider – a quick online search will help with that.
Back to Inspector Healan, he was still emphasising his thanks to the public while crucially saying, if we don’t stop good people, we won’t find criminals.
“Criminals are clever and do anything to avoid detection,” said Inspector Healan. “If we don’t stop people, we don’t know who they are.
“Sometimes we have to speak to nice people to find the criminals.”
With that warning, we were on our merry way, driving out the weighbridge hoping our tyres were inflated to the right pressure…
During the operation on October 26, 23 Traffic Offence Reports, or TORs, were issued for offences including no tax or MOT, and four vehicles were seized for being driven without insurance.
In total the following TORs were handed out:
- 5 x registration plate offences;
- 5 x vehicles being driven overweight;
- 5 x insecure loads;
- 5 x no valid insurance;
- 3 x cord or ply exposed on tyres;
- 3 x driving licence offences;
- 3 x no MOT;
- 1 x no tax.
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