A MAN has been jailed following a police operation targeting vehicle crime in Leamington.
Inderjit Lall has been jailed for 16 weeks after being arrested as part of a Leamington Safer Neighbourhood Team operation.
After looking at the pattern of vehicle crime in the town, PC Sarah Morton changed her shift pattern so she was on duty at the times the offences were occurring.
This paid off in the early hours of January 9 when PC Morton was nearby when a report of a the sound of smashed glass and a car alarm going off in Willes Terrace came in. She was quickly on the scene and saw the Lall cycling away. She stopped him in Radford Road and he was arrested.
In interview he denied the offences, saying he had been cycling around Leamington and the glass found on his clothes had got there after he fell off his bike into a pile of broken glass. He had no cuts or bruises, and couldn’t say where he fell off.
Lall was bailed so enquiries could continue and put on a curfew.
Then, in the early hours of January 12 Lall was spotted by CCTV operators on Tachbrook Road using a torch to look into seven cars.
Officers attended and arrested Lall again. He was later charged with the offences in Tachbrook Road and Willes Terrace.
Enquiries into the offences in Willes Terrace led to officers obtaining CCTV showing Lall shining a torch into cars.
Appearing at Coventry Magistrates’ Court on Friday (January 13) Lall, 39 and of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to one count each of vehicle interference, criminal damage and failing to provide a sample for a drug test, and seven counts of vehicle interference.
Sergeant Trent McMurray from Leamington Safer Neighbourhood Team said: “This conviction was in a large part due to the initiative and tenacity shown by PC Morton who showed and continues to show huge commitment to tackling vehicle crime in Leamington.”
PC Morton added: “Lall has caused significant distress to the public over his offending spree and I am pleased that he has been brought to justice. I hope that a spell in prison will give him time to reflect on his behaviour and hope that the residents of Leamington can sleep easier in the knowledge that he is no longer on the streets.”
