Legal Eagles swoop (From Gazette Series)

Legal Eagles swoop

A MULTI-AGENCY operation aimed at tackling a wide variety of illegal behaviour has been hailed a success by the police officer who co-ordinated the exercise.

Operation Eagle, which took place on Wednesday last week saw police working closely with representatives of the Department of Transport, the Ministry of Transport, Customs and Excise, the Department of Work and Pensions and the benefit fraud section of Stroud District Council.

The various agencies were based on the A38 at Newport, where they carried out a variety of checks on vans and lorries travelling along the road.

Co-ordinator PC George Sharpe said the combined approach had worked well.

He said: "It's not often you get an operation with so many different agencies taking part.

"During Operation Eagle we ran a kind of One Stop Shop where drivers and passengers had their details, and those of their vehicle, thoroughly checked.

"Each agency carried out checks within their own field of expertise, so for example, the Department of Transport checked tachographs while Customs and Excise were testing the contents of fuel tanks for red diesel."

During the operation 25 articulated lorries and 40 cars and vans were stopped on the A38.

Of these, one HGV from Holland was taken off the road immediately because its driver had exceeded the number of hours he was legally allowed to drive.

The man, a Dutch national, was only allowed to continue his journey at 11.30am the following day.

Another HGV driver stopped during the operation is being investigated for operating licence offences, while a third is under investigation in connection with tachograph offences.

Police also arrested one man who was wanted on bail for a number of different offences.

Added PC Sharpe: "Customs and Excise sampled fuel from 62 vehicles and they were very pleased to find that they all came back as being legitimate.

"It was a very successful day. When we explained what we were doing to the members of the public we stopped, the majority of them were very positive."

As part of the operation a number of school buses underwent safety checks at Katharine Lady Berkeley's School, Wotton, and Rednock School in Dursley.

Fourteen buses were checked, with only two found to have minor defects.