Stowmarket: Police stop 46 vehicles in one day

The operation saw officers from Suffolk Police including the Roads Policing and Firearms Operations Unit, Automatic Number Plate Recognition Intercept Team and the Dog Unit working with partner agencies from VOSA, Trading Standards, HM Revenue and Customs and Suffolk County Council Environment Agency.

Forty six vehicles in total were stopped and directed to a check point at the car park at the PPG Paints depot in Stowmarket where the drivers were spoken to and dealt with.

There were 11 immediate prohibition notices issued for serious vehicle defects and eight delayed prohibition notices and 55 advisory notices for vehicle defects.

Seven drivers were reported to the DVLA for vehicle excise offences, and six vehicle defect rectification forms were issued.

There were a further seven endorsable fixed penalty notices issued for either driving licence, no insurance or defective tyre offences, along with endorsable fixed penalty notices were issued for no MOT, excess noise, number plate and no tax offences.

One vehicle was seized for having no insurance.

Two men were also arrested on suspicion of taking a motor vehicle without consent.

The vehicle was seized and the 31 year old man from Bury St Edmunds and 29 year old man from the Colchester area were arrested and taken to the Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre for questioning.

Both were released with no further action.

Sergeant Julian Ditcham of the Roads Policing and Firearms Operations Unit said: “It is pleasing to remove vehicles from the road that are either dangerous or not correctly insured and to disrupt the activities of those using the road network to commit crime.”

Trading Standards encountered 18 vehicles where drivers were given guidance, with two recieving follow up enquiries regarding trading offences.

The County Council Environment Agency team interviewed and reported three drivers for waste and scrap offences.

HMRC did not record any offences.