A MAN has been arrested and six vehicles have been seized so far as part of a summer-long multi-agency operation led by police in Selby.

Operation Birch, which was launched on June 21, is run by North Yorkshire Police with the Environment Agency and HMRC.

Police pulled over motorists to check their insurance, haulage licences, to ensure legal fuel was being used, and to look out for vehicles with outstanding offences logged against them.

As reported in The Press, on the day it launched, officers made one arrest, detained two people for a drug search, issued a fixed-penalty notice to a motorist, and investigated 15 vehicles, one of which was seized and returned to the owner after payment of a fine.

Last Sunday, a second day of targeted operation was held with Selby police, supported by the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) team and Trading Standards, visited a car boot sale at Whitley.

The ANPR team stop-checked 19 vehicles on the A19, six of which vehicles were seized for having no insurance, arrested one man for driving without insurance, and eight other people were reported for summons for road traffic offences.

Trading standards officials carried out a series of test purchases at the car boot sale, and are following up a number of leads as a result of their inquiries.

Sergeant Jackie Booth, of Selby Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “Operation Birch has been a great success so far. I am delighted with the response from the community and partner agencies who are all working with us to reduce crime in Selby.

“The Rural Watch members offer us fantastic support and act as our eyes and ears out in the more isolated areas.

“They provide us with vital information which helps to combat travelling criminals and poachers and they are also a great help with rural patrols.

“It would be great to get more people signed up to Rural Watch to strengthen our hand even further against the criminals who travel into Selby District to commit crime.”