Police arrest two suspected fuel thieves after muddy search in Flintshire
Two people have been arrested in connection with the attempted theft of 2,500 litres of diesel from a coach yard in Flintshire.
Residents in Gwernymynydd reported seeing a large police presence at the coach depot with up six police vehicles present on Saturday evening.
The Hawarden based police helicopter was also seen circling above at around 10pm.
Police said local residents spotted a suspicious vehicle and “disturbed” two people in the coach yard.
A North Wales Police Interceptor team along with officers from South Flintshire and a Cheshire and North Wales Armed Alliance unit made their way to the location.
However the suspects had made off on foot leaving the fuel behind.
Officers located the two alleged offenders lying face down in dense woodland, a stolen van with cloned number plates was also recovered.
In an update on the its Facebook page, a spokesperson for the North Wales Police Intercept team explained what happened, they said: “Local residents disturbed two people in a coach yard in Gwernymynydd, Flintshire last night who were attempting to siphon over 2500 litres of diesel.”
“They were in that much of a rush to evade capture they left all the diesel behind, oh and the van used to transport the stolen diesel..which was on cloned plates and is suspected to be stolen.”
“Working with HGC De Sir Fflint / NWP South Flintshire, Armed Alliance officers and our eye in the sky, interceptors were able to locate and arrest two offenders who were lying face down in dense woodland..they clearly ran out of fuel!! ”
“Two arrested for burglary and theft of motor vehicle, Who said interceptors don’t get out of their cars!”
Great joined up working resulting in the arrest of 2 persons for for stealing diesel from commercial premises @NWPInterceptors @NPASNorthWest @LPSflintshire#newboots? #hideandseek #safestplaceintheuk pic.twitter.com/uFxrwY23uE
— Cheshire&NWales AAP (@CheshNWalesAAP) December 12, 2020
Last week thieves stole thousands of litres of fuel from a Sandycroft depot.
More than 10,000 litres of diesel was siphoned from a storage tank at Parcel Force on Factory Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning. .
The stolen fuel was loaded onto to a lorry in containers but as it was driven off a number of them fell onto the road at several points around Sandycroft.
The fuel also seeped into Broughton Brook and the River Dee triggering a large scale environmental clean up operation.
Police launched an appeal for information, DS Colin Oare said; “ This was a serious and extremely reckless crime in which more than 10,000 litres of fuel have spilled on to the road.”
I would appeal to anyone with information or dash-cam footage which may assist our investigation to call 101 or use the live webchat https://www.northwales.police.
