Two arrested in police dawn raids over £250k burglaries investigation
Dawn police raids were carried out at the homes of seven suspected burglars thought to have cost Staffordshire businesses £250,000.
Two men have been arrested as part of the joint operation between Staffordshire and West Midlands Police forces.
It follows 14 burglaries of businesses in areas including Cannock, Stone, Penkridge, Four Ashes, Featherstone, Wombourne, Perton and Kingswinford in recent months.
The burglaries have been taking place overnight since July and have cost in the region of £250,000 in stolen property and damages.
Seven warrants were executed and dawn raids took place early yesterday, with a man, aged 27, from Moseley Road, Bilston, and a 29-year-old man from Foster Avenue in Low Hill, Wolverhampton,held on suspicion of burglary.
Addresses in Willenhall, Tithe Croft, Fallings Park, Pennfields and Eastfield, in Wolverhampton, were also raided.
Property that is thought to have been stolen or used in the raids was seized by officers and taken for forensic investigation.
Detective Inspector Giles Parsons, from Staffordshire CID, led the operation.
He said he hoped the crackdown would send a strong message to businesses in Staffordshire who had fallen victim to burglaries or were concerned about break-ins that the crime was being tackled.
He added: “I would say to businesses that we do take these types of offences seriously and today’s operation is a good example of that.
“We are keen to do the best we can to ensure we locate and arrest the persons responsible, get them prosecuted and stop these offences from taking place.”
DI Parsons said: “We’ve executed seven search warrants at seven separate addresses in Wolverhampton in connect with a series of commercial burglaries, that have taken place since July.
“We have had around 14 over the past three months. The offences are being undertaken overnight, costing in the region of £250,000 in stolen property and damage. Two people are currently in custody.”
DI Parsons said officers would be continuing efforts to track down other suspects.
At the property in Fallings Park, in Croft Lane, both undercover and uniformed officers arrived shortly before 7am.
Police went round the rear of the building before knocking on the house of the door. “It’s the police can you open up,” shouted one officer through the window. “We don’t want to take the door off. You’ve got 10 seconds.”
The occupants of the house were given seconds to let the police in – or else faced their door being smashed through with a battering ram.
