Welford Incidents

• Suspicious Circumstances. Binton Road. Male seen going door to door selling knives. Gave the reason as having to go back to Holland after an exhibition nearby. This was checked and found not to be true. Male was driving a White estate car. 12.20pm Friday 11^th August. 0156 11/08/2017

Crash for Cash

Definition: to stage or deliberately cause a road traffic collision solely for the purpose of financial gain. We have seen a number of social media reports of incidents on the main roads from Redditch into Alcester relating to what people are calling ‘Crash for Cash’ accidents.  The following information is taken from the Insurance Fraud Bureau website. Follow this link for more information:- https://www.insurancefraudbureau.org/insurance-fraud/crash-for-cash/     “Costing around £340m a year, ‘Crash for Cash’ scams are run by fraudsters who manufacture collisions, sometimes with innocent road users, hoping to profit from fraudulent insurance claims. With claims from a single collision potentially worth tens of thousands of pounds, organised fraudsters are orchestrating scams that involve multiple collisions and can be worth millions of pounds.”

Identifying a ‘Crash for Cash’ scam.  There are 3 different types of scam – Staged Accidents, Induced Accidents and Ghost Accidents.

Tell-tale signs that you’ve been in a Crash for Cash scam:

• The other driver is far too calm for someone that’s been involved in a car accident
• They have already written down their insurance details before the accident happened
• Any injuries appear to be completely at odds with the force of the impact

What to do if you think you’ve been targeted:

• Note as much information as you can about the event, the driver, any passengers and the circumstances
• Take photos of the incident, if you are able and it is safe to do so.
• Call the police and report your suspicions
• Call the IFB’s Cheatline on 0800 422 0421 – your information may help us connect your accident to a wider, organised scam

Home and Garden security

How to reduce your chances of becoming a victim of burglary. Most victims of burglary are concerned that they have been specifically targeted or watched for a period of time prior to their burglary, to determine what their movements are. However, most burglaries are opportunistic. Burglars choose houses that:

• have little or no obvious security
• appear unoccupied
• have easy, unobserved access to the side and rear
• provide them with the chance to gain entry without being seen or heard

So it is possible to dramatically reduce burglaries by taking simple security measures to deter burglars and remove some of the opportunities that present themselves as easy targets. The best way to approach your home security is to start from the boundaries and work your way into the centre, treating each area as a layer, until you reach the targeted contents. This is known as the ‘onion peeling principle’.

Although the layers differ for each household, generally they can be broken down as follows:  Follow the links for further information on our website.

• Boundaries             https://www.warwickshire.police.uk/Boundaries
• Outbuildings          https://www.warwickshire.police.uk/article/5381/Outbuildings
• Buildings                https://www.warwickshire.police.uk/article/5382/Buildings
• Contents                 https://www.warwickshire.police.uk/article/5383/Contents

Right Service, First Time – Is it the police you need?

Has an offence been committed? Is my complaint a police matter? These are some of these questions which we have addressed on our website –   https://www.warwickshire.police.uk/RSFT    .If it is not the responsibility of the police we would like to help by directing you to the right partner agency who will be able to assist you. If you are unable to find the answer to your query on our website, you can continue to look for advice by clicking on this link https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/@1.htm     or alternatively if you need to speak to us about the matter contact us on the non-emergency number 101.