Crime-fighting charity celebrates Chinese New Year!

Just as I've fully recovered from all the festivities of Christmas and the New Year and got back into the crime-fighting routine, along comes...the Chinese New Year! Perfect timing for another celebration!
 

The Chinese New Year is celebrated on 3 February 2011 and marking the start of the Year of the Rabbit are Gloucestershire Crimestoppers, who will be holding a fundraising dinner to celebrate the occasion and raise money for the crime-fighting charity.

Everyone's invited to the celebration so if you want to back Crimestoppers in the region get involved and buy your tickets today!  The money raised certainly goes to a good cause - figures show that between April and December 2010, Crimestoppers received 664 pieces of useful information about crime in Gloucestershire. The information covered crime types ranging from drug dealing to money laundering to assault to drink driving. In addition, nearly £14,000 worth of drugs and over £2,500 of stolen goods have been recovered in the last nine months.  Great work guys!

For more information and to buy your tickets see the Gloucestershire pages of the Crimestoppers website.

Don't let thieves get their hands on your Christmas presents!

It's funny how Christmas suddenly seems so long ago. Once those decorations come down and you get back into the work routine the festive season feels like a distant memory...that is, until you look around and remember all the great presents you received! New cape, smellies, Enrique Iglesius album and some shiny new leather trousers are just some of the goodies that Santa brought me this Crimbo.

Could you imagine my dismay then if a burglar tried to target mi casa and steal all my Christmas goodies, never to be seen again?! A happy new year it would definitely not be!

I saw yesterday though that crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers has launched their first ever product to tackle exactly this problem.

The ingenious Crimestoppers Property Protector, launched as the charity celebrates its 23rd year, has seen Crimestoppers expand its work to help people protect their valuables and to deter those pesky thieves. The product's also backed by PC Tony Stamp (aka Graham Cole) of 'The Bill' fame.

Read more about how you can protect your Christmas gifts with Crimestoppers Property Protector

Drink driver takes goat on 'date'

I've heard of some far-fetched excuses to avoid punishment before but in all my years of crime-fighting this one really takes the biscuit!

A 54-year-old farmer in Poland was three times over the drink drive limit when he was stopped by police. As the police officers approached his vehicle they noticed an usual figure sitting in the passenger seat....his goat!

When the police started questioning the farmer he claimed that the goat had been feeling 'lonely' of late and so he'd taken the wee fella to a neighbouring farm to go on a 'date' with a female goat.

Who says romance is dead eh?!

Apparently the goats really hit it off and the man admitted to sipping a few vodkas to celebrate. What wasn't a cause for celebration though was the fact that he lost his license and may well face jail for drink driving.

That'll serve him right for all that 'kidding' around!

Crimestoppers offers 10k reward to catch those responsible for architect Joanna Yeates' murder

Crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers has offered a reward of £10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the death of landscape architect Joanna Yeates.

Joanna Yeates' body was found in Longwood Lane, Bristol, by a couple out walking their dog on Christmas Day. Post mortem tests revealed that she was strangled.

4x4 sighting

Police are appealing for any information people may have about Miss Yeates' disapearance.  A 4x4 was seen near to where Miss Yeates' body was found in Failand, near Bristol, which may hold clues. 

Police now believe the landscape architect returned to her Clifton home safely on 17 December - the night she was last seen alive. Any information from those last hours or days could be vital, so if you have any information contact Crimestoppers anonymously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Facebook campaign

On 4 January, Avon and Somerset Police launched a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to come forward with information about Joanna Yeates' death. The campaign involves an advert being shown on the site that will allow people to contact the force's incident room via the social networking site.

£10,000 Crimestoppers reward

To give information anonymously about this or any other crime call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or fill out the untraceable online Giving Information Form. Remember though peeps, only information passed to Crimestoppers will be eligible to receive the £10,000 reward offered by the charity.

The Most Wanted christmas tree around!

It may be the festive season but sadly crime never takes a holiday. So crime-fighting charity have put together their Most Wanted christmas tree, which shows the twelve individuals still wanted under the campaign Operation Captura.

Following the arrest of yet another Most Wanted individual, Dennis O'Brien on 18 December, Crimestoppers have put a festive spin on finding the remaining twelve by showing their faces on what is surely the 'most wanted' Christmas tree this year!

After an intial 50 appeals, only 12 remain, showing the success of the campaign which aims to track down criminals on the run in Spain who are wanted by UK law enforcement.

See if you can identify any of Operation Captura's dirty dozen here.

Another Most Wanted is captured in Spain!

So another one bites the dust as crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers confirm the arrest of another of Britain's most wanted individuals under Operation Captura. As the 38th arrest out of 50 appeals, the operation, which aims to locate wanted fugitives known to be on the run in Spain shows no sign of slowing down.

Dennis Patrick O'Brien was arrested on 18 December in the Costa Del Sol. Identified as one of Britain's most wanted men in December 2007, O'Brien faces prosecution for conspiracy to supply cocaine with a street value of £166 million.

We all know that crime doesn't pay but proof of this old adage came in November this year when the High Court granted SOCA's application to seize O'Brien's assets including a pub and substantial funds from his bank account.

Finding O'Brien wasn't easy to say the least. The hunt for him went all over the globe including Peru, England, the Netherlands, Spain and saw gang members tailed to Hong Kong and Dubai.

Read more about the arrest here

Fake cash funds crime

As the charity Crimestoppers rounds up its national Counterfeiting campaign we leave you with some important information about fake money, one of the strands of the campaign.

First of all you should be aware that street level criminals often use fake notes to buy cheap items in shops so that they get a large amount of change (made up of genuine money) in return.  So if you work in retail or banking it's very important to know the signs of how to spot a fake.

Of course some fake money is easy to miss at a glance, so of course it's important for all consumers to be aware of how to spot fake cash too.  Learn how to spot fake currency at:
fakesfundcrime.org.uk

You can also watch Crimestoppers' video below about fake money and how it can affect you.