Officers have continued to conduct late night patrols in rural areas to disrupt offences such as burglary and hare-coursing.

This time of year, with evenings becoming darker for longer, tends to coincide with heightened criminal activity with offenders operating under the cover of darkness and late into the night.

Country Watch – our specialist rural and wildlife crime team – were out through the night on Thursday 7 November and Friday 8 November.

On the Thursday, the teams were made aware of an attempted mini digger theft over the border in Wiltshire. The offenders were disturbed and followed by Wiltshire police, before the criminal convoy crossed into Hampshire.

Once in our county, Hampshire officers kept eyes out and spotted two vehicles in convoy driving dangerously and at speed. After initial attempts to follow and stop them, the vehicles were lost before one was spotted later in the night in Calmore.

No arrests were made on this night…

On Friday patrols continued, including around Faccombe and the surrounding areas, paying attention to farms, tracks, barns and rural estates. A vehicle suspected to be involved in the Wiltshire incident the previous night was spotted again in Romsey, along with a Ford Transit van, and failed to stop for police - two police vehicles were rammed in the process. A Honda CRV continued to make off from police, however officers successfully stopped a Ford Transit van in Lee.

The van was seized and was determined to have been stolen from Dorset. A 39-year-old man from New Milton was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, criminal damage, and theft of a motor vehicle.

He has been bailed until 8 February 2025 whilst the wider investigation continues.

Enquiries continued into the Honda but it was not sighted again that night.

The majority of the team’s activity took place across the Test Valley area, as well as parts of the New Forest.

This sort of police activity is not just about catching people in the act – it’s also about disruption. By simply being out, being visible, communicating with neighbouring forces, and giving chase to vehicles that catch our eye means we can stop criminals from targeting rural properties in the first place.

We run these types of operation regularly this time of year, and one such operation was documented by the BBC back in October – you can watch this here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00246zj/morning-live-series-6-24102024#t=6m16s