Countryside Cops

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

North Wales. One of the most beautiful landscapes in the British Isles.

It is a landscape that attracts visitors in their thousands.

But it is also a home

to some of the most isolated communities in the country.

And recent decades have seen a steep rise

in criminal activity in areas like this.

Somebody is pinching the property of people who work hard,

and it's very frustrating.

In these isolated communities,

people have very little protection against unwelcome intruders.

I think we fulfil an important role.

You know, farmers, they'll lose quad bikes or have something stolen,

it could have a huge impact on their business and their livelihood.

So, it's about working closely with these people

and showing that we care and making a difference.

Now a new and unique team has been set up

to tackle countryside crime across the whole of North Wales.

This small, specialised police unit

is faced with every type of rural crime,

from the theft of livestock, to organised crime gangs

that target agricultural farm equipment

worth thousands of pounds.

Their working day can include

the protection of the eggs of our rarest birds

and preventing acts of severe cruelty against wild animals.

That's disgraceful.

Life in the country is always a challenge for the Countryside Cops.

Just gives us a general view of where we are to...

The Rural Crime Team was set up

as a specialised unit of North Wales Police in 2013,

under the leadership of Sergeant Rob Taylor.

He began by ensuring that his team properly understood

the unique problems they would face on the job.

The team, when we started, the first week of operation,

I had them going out and working on farms for the first week,

so they were with the farming community,

they understood what it's like to take part in milking,

they know what a lamb being born looks like,

they know how to put fencing up.

These officers have then got a really good understanding

of what farming's about, how they can work with the farmers

and how they can be there to help them.

All of North Wales Police investigations

relating to animal welfare and rural issues

are passed on to this small team.

-She's back on the perch.

-Yeah, that's definitely her, isn't it?

-Oh, she's got a fish!

-Oh, yeah!

OK, thanks for all coming in.

Basically, we're carrying out a job this morning

in relation to numerous offences.

But this is no job for the faint-hearted.

Protecting wildlife and the natural environment

can involve confrontations, danger and high-risk situations.

Bearing in mind, Toby has several ...

Warnings we've got on him.

Yeah, they are quite volatile, and they're not going to be very happy.

Rural crime is very difficult to detect.

It happens in isolated places, in the middle of nowhere.

You haven't got the CCTV, so there's none of that.

It's a working environment, on a farm,

so you're looking at dirty surfaces,

so there's very rarely any CSI opportunities.

So, lines of inquiry are very limited, if not zero. We take it seriously.

Just like in an urban environment,

much rural crime happens in the evening and after dark,

when people are least likely to be seen.

So, the small police team patrol the highways and byways of their patch,

right through the night.

We're just coming down the road now, spotted the gate open.

Well, we're just checking.

We do get a lot of livestock thefts.

So it's always worth checking if you see something like that.

That would not be left.

A farmer wouldn't leave that gate like that -

out, open onto the road or into a junction.

Just have a look over here... with the night vision.

We're just outside a little village called Betws Gwerfil Goch,

on the edge of the Rhug Estate.

We've come up here to have a look for lampers.

It's quite a dark night,

we've got a good vantage position to look down the valley.

This area is a hot spot for illegal poachers

that use a technique known as lamping,

on account of the bright lights they use to hunt at night.

Poachers hunt with guns or with crossbows, both deadly weapons,

causing real fear for people living in isolated houses,

who suddenly see lights out on the fields.

Both officers notice a vehicle in the distance

and, within moments,

are in pursuit of the car that is speeding away from them.

I'm not going slow here, down these lanes. And, er...

You just manage to see their tail-lights.

Just got to ask the question,

what's he doing around here this time of night?

-Got the gear, ain't he?

-Yeah.

-How are you?

-You all right?

-I was panicking then, who was following me, like?

-Oh, yeah?

-You OK?

-You local?

-Yeah.

-All right.

-I'm lamping. I'm lamping.

-I'm shooting up the top here.

-Yeah?

And I'm off to Gwyddelwern now. I go shooting there as well.

I've got a .223 in there.

-Right, OK. So you're after foxes, are you?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Foxing for the farmers.

-Right, OK.

-So you...

-You know, sort of, "Hang on, he's making off at speed here."

-Yeah.

I was coming down, yeah. But I wasn't sure...

I don't know who's about.

I'd rather get to the main road if anybody's coming.

-Like I say, you don't know...

-No, no, I just thought...

We've checked him out.

They've checked the vehicle out, everything checks out with that.

PNC shows he has a shotgun, he is a firearms certificate holder.

He's had the weapon in the vehicle with him, checked the weapon.

It's all legit, all above board.

Farmers will employ him to go and shoot foxes

to control foxes around the lambs.

He's just said now,

they've had an awful lot of lambs taken in this area by foxes

and that's his job.

This time, the lamper was licensed and above board.

But it doesn't always turn out that way.

Investigations into another lamping case

have revealed evidence of poaching,

and the team are planning to move in on the suspects.

The team meet for a briefing at Porthmadog police station

and prepare for an imminent arrest.

OK, thanks for all coming. As you are all aware,

we're carrying out a job this morning in the Porthmadog area.

The team's come down this morning,

we're going to be looking at arresting some suspects

in relation to local offences that occurred here

and also some cruelty offences in regards to baby deer.

We're looking at two to three suspects,

so we are at least looking at two officers per suspect.

Also, we've got specialist knowledge of offences relating to deer,

what we're looking for, and that's the reason we've come down today.

And the evidence has contained a mobile phone.

Basically, the mobile phone footage shows a wild deer

being effectively tortured by a group of local lads.

We'll take them up to custody,

where we'll interview them in relation to the offences.

Due to the violent nature of this crime,

the team will take no chances when they approach the suspects.

So, yeah, if everyone else could search.

Bearing in mind, Toby has several ...

Warnings we've got on him.

Yeah, he has several ...

And, from previous experiences with both of them,

they are quite volatile and they're not going to be, um...

very happy.

Have we got secure vehicles?

Cos ours are not secure vehicles for transportation. Yeah?

The team are then shown video evidence of the crimes,

and it makes for harrowing viewing.

Unfortunately, there's one person here that we can't identify.

Can you see the dog?

The graphic evidence of the crime shocks even the most experienced

members of the team.

That's disgraceful. OK.

-Right, we going?

-Yeah, yeah.

We're going in.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Judging by the footage of these people torturing the baby deer,

I think we can come to some sort of reasonable conclusion that

they're not pillars of society.

It's never nice when you have to view

evidence of animal abuse.

But this isn't the first time that the team has come across

evidence like this.

So we take them seriously.

If someone can do this sort of thing to an animal,

you know, can they do the same thing to a person?

It's quite a serious offence, really.

As the principal suspect is residing in a local hotel,

the team have to close in and try to make an arrest without causing

distress or harm to other residents.

Hiya.

Initially, the officers are met with some resistance

and are unable to enter the hotel.

THEY SPEAK IN WELSH

But eventually the officers gain access

to 22-year-old Toby Humphreys.

We've got two people in custody now.

They're going to be going to the police station to be interviewed,

make further enquiries, and there's one further person we're looking for

but, yeah, it's all gone really smoothly and nobody's injured

and two arrests, so it's a good result for us so far.

Let's just see what else we can get.

Toby Humphreys and Jac Parry both pleaded guilty to killing a deer

and were sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment.

It's very rare that we come across such a severe case of cruelty

to animals, as this particular case. Lots of people have told me

that two months was not enough to justify what had happened, you know,

the offence they were charged with was poaching a deer at night

and the maximum sentence was three months. In total, they'll probably

spend a month each in prison, I should imagine.

I can't, for the life of me,

think of a motive as to why these people have done what they have.

You know, why would they do it?

Why would they cause so much unnecessary suffering

to an innocent creature?

There's no need for it.

PC Evans is the youngest member of the team.

His area covers Anglesey and Gwynedd,

including the mountains of Snowdonia.

I'm fascinated with biology, with wildlife, the environment.

That's my main sort of interest, really.

So I used to work for a conservation body here in Wales.

But I thought it'd be interesting to have a more exciting career

and I ended up in this role, which is rural crime officer.

Fascinating role, they deal with wildlife.

And it's in the area that I've grown up, so it's the perfect job, really.

I'm very lucky to be doing it.

With a beat that spans over 1,200 square miles,

the terrain and weather can change dramatically

in the course of a single day's work.

It can be hard up here, you know, when you're working the land.

The weather's atrocious at times, like today.

But whenever I come up here people are friendly.

The farmer I'm going to see today is someone I haven't met before.

But the crime we'll be investigating at the farm is something that,

from time to time, has been quite common, unfortunately.

It's a crime of sheep worrying, where basically dogs, for whatever reason,

have been attacking the farmer's flock.

Mr Williams' farm, on the hills in Snowdonia,

forms part of a common moorland covering over 30,000 acres,

and is popular with visitors and dog walkers.

It's the end of winter

and the farmer is preparing for the lambing season -

the time of year when sheep farmers

build their stock for the following year.

Mr Williams takes PC Evans to the scene of the crime where wool,

scattered during the attack, is still visible on the moorland.

The loss of a single animal is a real blow to any farmer,

and the prospect of the attack being repeated

is a cause of considerable stress to Mr Williams.

So this is the sheep that's been attacked?

It's where the dog has actually grabbed it in the neck...

and torn the membrane and broke it in the bite.

It must have been a very powerful bite.

It broke its neck as well as the...

the actual spine as well.

-Yeah, there's a bit of a smell here, isn't there?

-Yes.

Well, it's been here since Saturday.

-The other sheep out there are within five weeks of lambing now.

-Right.

And, well, the disturbance can become...

HE SPEAKS WELSH

The dog, whatever it was, has had a taste of blood

and it will reoccur every time.

Within hours of the visit,

PC Evans received a phone call from Mr Williams in which the farmer

described seeing the dog attacking the sheep a second time.

It's been a very eventful day today.

The farmer we met, Mr Williams, who had the sheep killed,

he actually called me earlier on and he told me that he'd caught a dog

and he was holding the Alsatian in his arms as he was calling me -

he was quite excitable.

But before PC Evans could get the details, it was clear something

was very wrong with Mr Williams

and PC Evans called in emergency help.

During his scuffle with the dog,

Mr Williams had suffered a heart attack

and was fighting for his life.

By a chance in a million, PC Evans was on the phone at the exact moment

and was able to summon help

and direct the air ambulance to the exact location,

a move that gave Mr Williams

a slight chance of surviving the ordeal.

He told me that on this occasion he choose to use his camera

rather than the gun. So he used his camera to take a photograph

of what was happening and then he's tackled the dog.

And by tackling the dog and phoning myself he's had a heart attack.

With Mr Williams in hospital, PC Evans is returning to the scene.

He knows that Mr Williams was attempting to cage the dog

but he doesn't know if he succeeded in shutting it in.

Got to be careful. I don't want to be eaten.

But it looks like the dog in question is up there somewhere.

DOG BARKS

(OK...)

DOG BARKS

Er, it's just, just the sheepdog.

Must be two sheepdogs, probably John's dogs. Hello!

Very friendly as well.

Erm, I think there's been some activity here in the last few hours,

I would say. OK, well, the Alsatian was in a cage.

Er, it could well have been this one.

It's entirely possible that the owner, er, I'm guessing now,

but it's entirely possible that the owner has come to collect the dog.

Er, it's going to be difficult to ascertain what's happened.

What is "rough spillage?" It should be big spillage.

Equally then the box next to it saying what actually...

'Because I've got such a small team,

'the first decision was I need them to work smarter.'

A small team can be extremely resourceful in regards

to how we target and how we're impactive.

The whole team have got some sort of background in what we do.

You know, I've worked dairy farms,

I've worked pig breeding farms as a pest controller.

Erm, I fish.

Oh, yeah, we've all got something that we can bring to the equation.

I've worked in many different roles within the police service

before doing this particular role.

I've been working in towns on response,

I've been investigating crimes full time,

but this particular role is vastly different to everything else.

We deal with the wildlife,

that's basically what I was involved in

before I joined the police service,

so that's what I'm really interested in,

so it's great to be able to deal full time with wildlife matters.

And of course all the other subjects that we deal

with in the countryside as well.

Although more used to the countryside,

the team occasionally get called into town.

Having been called in by a homeowner who heard movement in her garden,

the city police called in the team

when they found strange tunnels in the garden.

I've never seen anything like this before.

You normally see them, obviously, in the rural areas and all that,

but that's the noises what the lady can hear,

it's an extensive badger sett in her back garden.

That was a really, really unusual job.

So, on one side, she's got the reassurance it's not burglars

or people trying to break in. The other side, now, she's got badgers.

But in fairness to the lady, she seems to like wildlife

and she's happy that the badgers are there, so a happy ending

in the end, but very, very unusual job to see something like that.

-I didn't expect that at all.

-I've never seen anything like that.

-No.

PC Evans is on his way to see farmer John Williams,

who is home from hospital, having survived his suspected heart attack.

OK, John, erm, how are you feeling after coming out?

I'm feeling a lot better now.

Er, I spent the night in Accident & Emergency in Bangor,

and, er, had a good night's rest,

and oxygen to help me.

Before collapsing, Mr Williams got some photographs of the dog,

which he believes he recognises.

The Alsatian that you caught yesterday,

where is it now, John, d'you know?

Well, the Alsatian that was involved in the incident yesterday

lives in the property adjoining my farm.

The only thing I know is that he took a direct blow from me

on his backside with a shovel, that's the only...

And did you catch the dog?

I didn't actually catch him, no, and I meant to hit him on the head.

But he was too quick when he turned round, and I caught him

on his backside with the flat of the shovel, unfortunately.

That's the last thing I remember.

I remember picking the phone up and phoning you...

and talking to you... I can't remember what I said.

I was lying in the sheep muck on the floor next to the pens.

I thought it was the end, to be quite honest with you.

I've just been speaking to John now,

and he's quite certain he knows who owns this dog,

so I'm now going to see the dog owner, er,

and I'm going to offer the dog owner to see the, er, the sheep,

then I'll be looking at interviewing the dog owner then

in relation to what happened.

I'll just show you the sheep.

This is the, er...animal.

You know, you're not being accused of anything at this point in time.

As you can see, it's, erm, you know, you can see the injury at the...

That's why my dog came home covered in blood dripping, was it?

-No, I'm...!

-It didn't.

-That's OK, OK.

-Sorry.

-Don't worry...

-This happens every year.

-OK.

Every year we lose sheep up here through an animal.

-OK, were you aware that this animal had died the other day?

-The who?

Were you aware that this particular sheep had died the other day,

-that John had lost a sheep?

-No.

-OK.

-No, John doesn't talk to me at all.

-OK, fine.

-No communication.

-OK.

Following the visit from PC Evans, the neighbour settled out of court,

and the dog owner agreed to control the animal in future.

Many dog owners, from my experience, they, erm,

are quite blind to what their dogs can do.

For example, erm,

I've known of certain dogs who have attacked the sheep,

and then when I speak to the owner, erm, their honest opinion is,

erm, "My dog wouldn't do that." Erm, and sometimes you have to explain to

them, "Well, in this case, it has."

Erm, and of course, it can be quite a dangerous viewpoint

because if they believe their dogs haven't done it, erm,

and they don't change anything as regards to the

behaviour of their dog or how they saw the dog, then it's going to

happen again, because as soon as the dog's had a taste for blood,

normally it will carry out the same behaviour again.

We've had too many incidents of sheep worrying, erm, in North Wales.

We take it seriously. Really seriously.

We're working hard in relation to sheep worrying.

Your dog can be shot.

You don't want that. Nobody wants that.

We will prosecute, you know, people whose dog worries sheep. We will.

But it's about education as well.

If we can educate people and people realise,

"Hang on a minute, you know, I'm either going to end up in court

"here if my dog worries a sheep, or my dog's going to be shot."

Developing an understanding

and a feel for the people of these far-flung rural communities

is crucial for a team that has to intervene

in disputes between neighbours.

Sometimes, though, the team has to think laterally

to figure out a case.

Team member PC Dave Allen has a background in environmental studies,

and was a response officer for over ten years before joining the team.

I don't consider myself a wildlife expert,

but they're very hard crimes to investigate cos your victim

can't talk to you, so you have to think outside the box, really,

and I enjoy that challenge.

How can we get evidence to take this person to court over that offence?

Every call-out brings a new challenge for the officers,

but for PC Allen, his next investigation is all too familiar.

I'm off to report of a bird poisoning today.

I've had a police officer report that, erm,

he's located two dead birds,

one pigeon and a buzzard next to each other, looking quite fresh.

So we think it sounds a bit suspicious,

so we're going to take a look at that in Llanfair Talhaiarn near Abergele.

The birds that tend to be poisoned are the birds of prey,

so your buzzards, your peregrine falcons,

the red kite, that sort of thing.

Why do people do it? Um... Two ticks.

-Are you OK?

-Fine, yeah.

-Oh, right. I thought...

-See your head down there...

-Gorgeous day.

-It is indeed, yeah.

Have you got trouble with your car, have you? Is everything all right?

-No. Just a general inspection.

-All right, then.

-I'm holding you up?

-No, no, you're fine. I was just making sure

you're all right more than anything really. You haven't broken down...

-Very considerate of you.

-Well, you know. Got to make sure

-you're all right, that's the main thing.

-Thanks a lot.

No problem at all. You look after yourself.

-Thank you.

-Ta-ra.

-All the best.

-You too. Bye now.

He was just having an inspection of his vehicle.

The team deals with incidents of poisoned birds of prey regularly.

Buzzards are excellent hunters and will hunt pigeons and pheasants

and it is not uncommon for them to be poisoned by other bird owners

who are protecting their birds from being attacked.

Huh.

Yeah. Um...

A dead pigeon here. Obviously, injury there.

From what I can see, no apparent injury to that buzzard there.

What I'll do now is I'll put two sets of gloves on,

just in case they have been poisoned - we don't know what with.

I'll bag it, seal it and I'll send it off to the Welsh government labs

and they will test to see if any poisons have been done.

I'll get some photos of it first in situ.

Just starting to...

If you look at this animal here,

I mean, obviously, look at the talons on it.

You know, I mean, look how sharp they are, to grab prey.

Unfortunately, the buzzard is often a victim of poisoning

or shooting, but another bird of prey has far more protection.

The osprey is said to be one of the most majestic

of the native birds of prey.

In the early 1800s, it is thought

that there were hundreds of breeding pairs of ospreys in Britain,

but heavy persecution, mania by Victorian egg

and skin collectors, during the 19th century

brought about its demise, with the last sighting of an osprey

being recorded in Wales in the 1930s.

Now the birds are beginning to find their way back into Wales,

but remain extremely rare.

One of the best aspects of this work for me is to deal with the ospreys.

About ten years ago, we had a breeding pair return to Wales,

just down the valley from where we are now

and the same pair have been coming back year after year after year,

to the same nest and raising chicks every single year.

Because the ospreys are so rare in Wales,

you can imagine that the attraction for an egg collection is very high.

There's a group of volunteers locally

who come together to protect the ospreys.

I work with them and, every single year,

we put a plan together to protect the nest.

-Hi, Viv.

-Hello.

-Good to see you again.

-Good to see you.

-Likewise.

-I haven't seen you in a good couple of weeks now.

-Brought the sunshine with you.

Well, I think it was already here, to be honest with you.

-What's he caught? It's difficult to tell what sort of fish.

-It is, yes.

You can hardly see it. What's she like, this female?

She's feisty. She will chase any intruding ospreys.

Hopefully, next time I come and see you, hopefully,

-they'll have eggs laid. We hope so.

-Yes, we hope so.

-How's the security aspect of the operation going, Viv?

-Very well.

Very well.

Obviously, we have people here in the hide at night,

we have people in the caravan, our volunteers.

We have the monitor

and we can see exactly what's happening within the nest itself,

the top of the tree.

We've got security cameras placed around the area

and at the base of the tree.

We've also got infrared binoculars

that work with infrared security cameras over there.

We do everything possible that we can do.

Absolutely.

If you come across anything, give us a call and we'll deal...

Definitely. We would do, yes.

Much of the farming community in North Wales

live in remote and isolated locations.

CCTV is rare and neighbours can be miles away.

Inhabitants are vulnerable to those looking for property

with few witnesses.

PC Dave Allen has been called out to a remote farm in Flintshire

to investigate the discovery of four fresh animal skins

found on the land.

This has caused some bewilderment

and worry for the land owner, as only sheep graze on his fields.

Had a report of four deer skins

being dumped down a lane,

so I was, obviously, strongly suspecting poaching there,

so we're going to go take a look,

we're going to meet the person that's reported it in.

Poaching is by far the most common wildlife crime in the UK

and deer are particularly targeted for their meat.

Mr Archdale, the landowner,

takes PC Allen to the lane where the skins were found.

-A bit of hair from the fur of the skin.

-Yeah.

What I'd love to know is why they skinned the things here?

Well, they may not have done.

Before inspecting the deer skins, PC Allen wants to see

if he can find any evidence on the road, or in the adjoining woodland.

Yeah. So, there you go, that's quite a big...

big piece of it there, OK?

Could well have been skinned here, you know.

More skin and hair here as well.

There's no signs of any fresh blood.

What deer may do sometimes as well

is what's known as gralloching with the deer,

is where they'll drain all the blood. Hang it and drain all the blood

because if the blood stays in the carcass, it taints the meat,

which is not good then for eating.

Having established that the animals were skinned at the roadside,

PC Allen wants to work out how they were killed -

all information that could lead to a arrest.

The presence of poachers

is a real worry to people who live in the area.

Do you any issues with your livestock at all?

Not as such, no.

The only thing we do have are people coming up lamping at night.

Yeah. I can see you're quite quiet here, aren't you? Yeah.

Especially if the family are here without me, it's a little bit...

They tend to get a little bit nervous.

Yeah. I can see you're quite isolated.

My tractor driver, he came up the other night

and he parked on the top there,

and he said it was like Blackpool illuminations here.

If you've got people lamping and all that, let me know.

I wonder where they come from?

That's the million-dollar question, ain't it?

Puncture wound there. Incision is quite clean.

It's almost like a surgical cut. It's clean,

it's not ragged or anything like that there, you see.

Imagine that's the profile of the deer there, yeah.

Obviously, the head end is here, my left hand.

And what we've got here is the shot.

-There, which is, basically, a heart shot.

-Yeah,

which is, I strongly suspect, a crossbow, totally illegal to be used.

There's no bite marks along here where the dogs brought it down,

or on the back legs...

that I can see here, there is no bite, puncture wound.

I'd say whoever done it, very, very clean.

This profile will be logged and matched

with future cases to help catch the poachers.

One of the Rural Crime Team's main objectives

is changing attitudes to help people

to better protect themselves against crime.

These are my two favourite FUW people.

-Shw' mae, David?

-Shw' mae, Dafydd?

One of the unit's first breakthroughs was to smash

an organised crime ring stealing quad bikes across North Wales.

But it seems that another spate of systematic theft is occurring.

It's a nice day

and, unfortunately, it was a nice night for a crime last night.

We've had the tractor stolen from Anglesey,

a tractor along with another farm vehicle,

so I'm on my way now to meet up with the victim,

see if we can gather enough evidence to progress an investigation here.

Diawlad. Pwy bynnag sy'n gyfrifol. Oes gyda chi syniad? Dyma ni.

Perffaith. Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi. Iawn.

Woke up this morning, six o'clock, go and look at the sheep,

tractor pinched. It was very frustrating.

-Not the first time it's happened.

-When did you first see it was here?

About seven o'clock last night.

-OK, so it's gone over quite a distinct period, isn't it?

-Yes.

Somebody is pinching hard-earned property of people who work hard

and it's very frustrating.

I would love to have been there or caught them in the act,

that's the only thing I can say.

The CSI team have been called out

and are looking for any clues the thieves might have left behind

but farmyards are very difficult areas

to search for forensic evidence, as everything is covered in muck.

In this case, though,

the forensic investigator thinks he might have a lead.

-If you have a look in this area here.

-Yeah?

-You can actually see the squiggles of the lines.

-Right.

Where it's a, you know, more like a woollen deposit

which has been left within the dirt.

-We've recovered tractors previously.

-Have you? That's good.

-It took a month.

-A month?

-Yeah.

-OK, then.

-So, we'll see if we can do it again.

-I'll have to buy another one.

-I can't wait a month.

-I know. We'll do all we can.

If there are any leads that crop up, we'll exhaust them all.

Without a tractor, Hugh Lewis, the farmer, is unable to carry on

with farming work, meaning that his business is losing money each day.

Many farms have been leaving gates

and even doors unlocked for generations.

Locking them is a cultural change that will take some getting used to.

-I'll live in hope then.

-Live in hope. OK.

Other officers are out making house-to-house enquiries

about the incident and they think they might have a lead.

Interesting discussion there with my colleagues.

They've been told of a Ford Transit van

that was seen under suspicious circumstances last night

which matches the information that I've had

and apparently this particular van was parked outside

a level crossing in Ty Croes,

so I'm going to head over there and see if they have CCTV there

and if we do, of course, we may have some suspects who we'll see.

I've been to the level crossing.

There is no CCTV there,

so that's out of the question, unfortunately.

PC Evans gets a call out to another farm on Anglesey

where thieves have attempted to steal two tractors

from another farmyard.

But this time, they abandoned the tractors a few miles from the farm.

Looking at the ignition barrel here,

I can see that it's not damaged at all.

The key for this tractor, it's a culture for us all,

the farmer has that in his possession and we know that this thing

was actually being driven along the road yesterday so the criminal

has clearly brought his own key along and that's how it's been stolen.

Open gates and open doors may be a long-standing tradition but it is

one that has to end if this spate of organised crime is to be stopped.

Unfortunately, even though this is a lovely farm,

it's quite vulnerable to crime.

The reasons being, no-one lives here

and also there are no sort of surrounding properties,

so it's very vulnerable.

I think the number one thing we can do here

is to put a lock on the gates leading into the farm

because if there was a lock there,

it would have been that much more difficult for the offenders

to drive off with these very expensive items.

It appears there may be a criminal gang

targeting Anglesey for tractors.

These farms have proven to be a soft target for thieves.

The team's priority now is to prevent any more thefts.

In the first 18 months, the Rural Crime Team

have dealt with hundreds of investigations,

developing a new kind of policing

and creating a model for other forces across the country.

We've been lucky enough to have some good results

where we've recovered stolen property,

we've put people away in prison and we've solved wildlife crime,

so it's a very rewarding role in that aspect.

The short time the team's been going,

we really feel we're making a difference to the farming community.

The feedback we get is brilliant, really, really good.

And it's because there's a full-time team. That's the difference.

It's proven, 18 months' time,

the span that we've been evolved as a team and we're now looking

at wildlife crime down over 50%. That's a massive, massive impact.

Even after a year on this unique beat,

the team are still encountering the kind of challenges

that would never crop up for their urban counterparts.

Hook that through.

When you joined the job, you didn't think you'd be doing this, did you?

More slowly, go on. Again. Go on. Carry on. Come on, girl. Good, girl.

Come on. Carry on. Carry on.

Good. Hey. There you go. There we go. One big lamb.

-I've got it, hang on, Al...Dave, rather.

-Yeah.

Hang on, she might be another...

Not done that for a few years.

Timing couldn't be better, could it, Chris? Timing couldn't be better.

Impeccable, Dave. Impeccable.

She'll show it.

She'll, um...lick it dry.

Once it's on its feet, it'll suckle.

It must have colostrum within the first 12 hours.

Once she's licked it and bonded with it, should she be OK?

-Job well done.

-Thanks, Chris.

-Thank you very much.

-Just in the nick of time.

-We'll be off now, mate. The lambing.

More lambing to do.

It's the first time I've done it with a sheep.

-You don't mind delivering babies, do you?

-I'd call it, call it Paul.

THEY LAUGH

Doesn't look like a Paul to me, looks more of a Dewi.

HE LAUGHS