North Yorkshire Police want help to identify a man seen climbing on top of a red car in Harrogate causing damage to its bodywork.
The incident took place on Skipton Road on Thursday, May 19 at around 11.35am when the man, who is described as skinny, aged 22 and with brown hair, managed to get on the car’s roof.
He was wearing a navy blue short-sleeved shirt, orange shorts and black trainers.
A second man was also at the scene and is described as skinny, around 20 years old and with blond hair.
He was wearing a red shirt, black Adidas trousers with white stripes down the sides, and white trainers.
If you recognise either man pictured in the CCTV or can provide any other information about the incident, email geeta.maharjan@northyorkshire.police.uk or call 101, press option two and ask for Geeta Maharjan.
Read More:
- Harrogate man gives garden a Ukraine-themed makeover
- How the Harrogate district celebrated the jubilee
Harrogate residents question police’s 18-hour silence after gunshot reports
A number of Harlow Hill residents have questioned why North Yorkshire Police took 18 hours to offer any reassurance to families after alleged gunshot last weekend.
Residents have also criticised police claims that they responded immediately, saying armed officers took about 45 minutes to arrive and the police helicopter was deployed later still.
Police say they were called to reports of “loud bangs” in the Pinewoods at 5.01pm on Friday.
Armed officers attended and were stood down shortly after 7pm. But another 16 hours passed until police issued a five-paragraph media statement at 11.04am the following day.
An armed officer at the Pinewoods entrance on Friday.
The Stray Ferret has received calls from several residents saying children had been playing in the Pinewoods at the time of the noises and people were frightened. They were therefore disappointed not to be kept informed by police.
One person said:
“There was no reassurance whatsoever. We are a community very close to Harrogate police station and I would have thought some form of panic prevention and reassurance would have been issued.”
Read more:
- Police search of Harrogate’s Pinewoods found nobody with a weapon
- Five Harrogate firefighters could lose jobs in plans to reduce service
Residents praised the police for sending armed officers and a police helicopter but said the following day’s media statement, which said ‘officers immediately attended and carried out an extensive search in the area’, was misleading.
They said two plain clothes officers turned up after about 10 minutes but the length of time it took armed officers and the helicopter to arrive, although understandable given that those involved had to travel, allowed plenty of time for anyone responsible to leave the Pinewoods.
‘Proportionate response’
Andy Colbourne, Chief Inspector for Harrogate and Craven, told the Stray Ferret the force control room assessed 999 calls to ensure a proportionate response and he was satisfied the right action was taken in this instance. He said:
“We provided a response that was suitable to the information we had at the time.”
Chief Inspector Colbourne added he did not know exactly when the armed officers and police helicopter arrived on the scene.
Police at the scene.
He said a male in the area was searched on the night but released because “nothing was found on him that would link him in any way to the incident”.
Chief Inspector Colbourne added he would look into the delay in issuing any update to the community, adding:
Multiple vehicle crash on A1 at Allerton Park“If we are getting calls from the public about something that could be significant I would expect they will get an update quickly.”
Emergency services were called out shortly after midnight last night to reports of a car crash on the A1 in the Harrogate district.
Two people needed treatment from ambulance crews at the scene following the incident, which happened on the northbound carriageway at junction 47.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident log says firefighters from Knaresborough and Harrogate attended a “multi-vehicle road traffic collision”. It adds:
“On arrival crews found that no persons were trapped. Two walking wounded casualties with minor injuries were left in the care of police and ambulance crews.
“Crews made the scene safe and carried out a thorough search of the embankment for further casualties. Incident left in the hands of police.”
Read more:
- Man seriously injured in crash on Harrogate’s Leeds Road
- ‘Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!’ Knaresborough’s town crier ready for special jubilee weekend
Pinewoods gunfire: ‘Children were playing – people were terrified’
A woman who heard three gunshots in the Pinewoods last night has said people were terrified when the reality of what was happening dawned on them.
The female, who lives in the Plantation area on Harlow Hill and asked not to be named, said children were playing in the woods as normal at about 5pm.
She said the three shots were fired over the space of about 15 minutes, adding:
“The first shot shook us up. The second time it happened I came out of the house and went into the woods.
“There were children playing in the woods, as usual. Parents had gathered to collect them. They were absolutely terrified.
“There was a longer gap between the second and third shots and when it came it sounded very close. My partner speculated that somebody might have been shooting at us.”
Police arrive at the scene last night.
Read more:
- Armed police close off Pinewoods after suspected gunfire
- Police silent over gunfire in Harrogate’s Pinewoods
North Yorkshire Police has not commented on the incident and the witness, who said she saw an officer carrying. a taser gun, said residents would have appreciated some news that the area was safe. She said:
“It’s not reassuring at all.”
The witness also said the gunshots were categorically not related to a training exercise at the nearby Army Foundation College, as many people have suggested on social media.
“We are a close community and we know what we heard. These three shots came from the Pinewoods.”
Armed police arrive.
This is the moment that a First World War bomb was detonated in Knaresborough.
The unexploded bomb was found in the River Nidd during a weekly litter pick by Simon Briscombe, whose partner Rachel Wills owns the Watermill cafe.
The couple wrapped the bomb, which they initially thought to be a gas canister, in sandbags at their home and dialled 101. The bomb squad, police and firefighters rushed to their home at The Chase.
Their house, along with about 30 others on the estate, was immediately evacuated while the bomb was taken to a nearby field and a controlled explosion carried out. The A59 was closed for about two hours.
Local resident Piers Ballance shot the footage below of the detonation in his friend Sam Darnbook’s field off the A59, opposite the Toyota garage.
Mr Ballance said the road was closed from Goldsborough roundabout to Manse Lane while the controlled explosion was carried out.
He said:
“We saw several police officers and army personnel at the site of the detonation.
“The explosion surprised us all as we did not expect it to be as loud. We felt the shockwave go through us.”
Read more:
- Bomb squad detonates First World War bomb in Knaresborough
- Knaresborough daredevil, 70, performs 50th skydive
Meanwhile, Ms Wills said her and her partner were left in shock after finding the bomb.
She said:
Ripon teenager assaulted in unprovoked attack“We’re still in shock. If Simon had known what it was he wouldn’t have moved it.
“The police were horrified because he brought it home in the car and there are a lot of speed bumps in Knaresborough. But we didn’t know what it was.”
North Yorkshire Police is appealing for witnesses following an assault on a 17-year-old in Ripon.
It happened outside Majestic Wine on North Street between 9.45pm and 10pm on Wednesday May 4.
The victim was approached by two unknown young men who punched him several times in an unprovoked attack.
He suffered minor facial injuries but did not require medical treatment.
The suspects are described as being aged around 16 to 18 years old and were wearing dark tracksuits.
Anyone with information that could assist the investigation should contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Mark Nursey. You can also email mark.nursey@northyorkshire.police.uk.
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crime stoppers on 0800 555 111.
Read more:
Accountant jailed for conning Harrogate man out of his home
An accountant has been jailed for more than five years for conning a man with learning difficulties out of his Harrogate home and more than £30,000 of savings.
Sukhdev Singh, 73 spent the money within a fortnight on expensive jewellery, gambling, bank transfers to accounts he held in India, private school tuition fees and other domestic spending.
Singh persuaded his vulnerable victim into signing over his inherited £300,000 family home in an up-market location in Harrogate. He also made a sustained and determined but failed attempt to have the title deeds to the victim’s inherited Spanish holiday home fraudulently transferred to himself.
Today, detectives who led the investigation said Singh displayed astounding levels of arrogance, remaining unrepentant throughout his trial for what amounted to be a sickening and callous series of frauds perpetrated against a vulnerable victim.
The man Singh targeted, who has not been named to protect his identity, is in his 50s. But a psychologist who assessed him confirmed his mental capacity to be that of a 12-year-old, someone clearly vulnerable to potential exploitation.
Singh convinced the victim to let his sole trader accountancy business, SS Singh & Co, receive and hold his savings subsequent to the death of his parents some years earlier.
Offshore accounts
Singh, of Chelwood Drive, Moor Allerton in Leeds, had learned of all the assets owned by the victim which had been bequeathed to him by his parents.
These assets included the property in Harrogate, an apartment in Spain and tens of thousands of pounds in offshore savings accounts held with banks based in Gibraltar and Jersey.
By 2016, Singh had transferred the victim’s Harrogate house into the ownership of a company owned and controlled by himself; namely SS and SK Lalli Ltd.
The Land Registry title of the property was thereafter held in the name of SS & SK Lalli Ltd, which appeared to show a purchase price paid during the transaction. However, there was in fact no exchange of funds from Singh to pay for the house, which resulted in him obtaining the house for no payment whatsoever.
Read more:
- Harrogate district care worker jailed after sexually abusing vulnerable resident
- Simon Pegg shoots new film in Harrogate
During the same year, Singh travelled to Gibraltar with the victim where he persuaded him to close his savings account and transfer the balance of more than £34,000 into the UK bank account of SS Singh & Co held by Mr. Singh. The victim was led to believe that Singh would look after these funds on his behalf.
Singh then spent the whole of the £34,000 over the following two weeks on jewellery, gambling transactions, transfers to bank accounts held by Singh in India and other personal domestic spending.
From 2016 onwards, the victim continued to live at the Harrogate property, but had unwittingly become the tenant of Singh’s company without so much as a tenancy agreement to protect him.
The crooked accountant then suggested to the man that he could move from his home address into a flat. Had this happened, Singh would have been free to treat the house as his own.
In the meantime Singh made attempts to ‘help’ the victim to close his Jersey-based savings account and to transfer the account funds into the business account of SS Singh & Co. The police investigation was able to prevent this from happening.
Singh also met with an official in Spain and tried to arrange for the victim’s inherited holiday home to be signed over to him. Fortunately, it failed at the eleventh hour as officials became suspicious when Singh could not provide proof that the purchase funds had been paid to the victim.
The defendant created a series of documents containing false statements to support the frauds.
Citizen’s Advice raises concerns
By 2019, the victim’s Harrogate property had fallen into a significant state of disrepair and he approached the local Citizen’s Advice bureau for help.
This started a chain of events whereby Citizens Advice raised concerns with social services. Singh had let the home deteriorate so much that environmental health teams were brought in.
They became suspicious of the title transfer of the victim’s Harrogate home, and reported their suspicions to North Yorkshire Police’s economic crime unit in 2019.
The force’s specialist economic crime detectives began a long and complicated investigation that would ultimately see Singh arrested in July of that year, and the victim’s remaining assets were secured.
Singh was eventually charged with four counts of fraud, all relating to the one victim. During his trial, Singh refused to accept any wrongdoing and claimed he had acted entirely in the victim’s interests and had merely followed his instructions. Singh attempted to portray his victim as a shrewd and articulate man.
However, a jury didn’t believe Singh and found him guilty of all counts on 13th April this year. After the verdict he was remanded into custody.
A judge at York Crown Court today jailed Sukhdev Singh for five years and six months.
‘Sickening and callous series of frauds’
After the sentence, former Detective Constable Ian Sharp, who led the investigation for North Yorkshire Police’s economic crime unit said:
Four arrests in Harrogate as police swoop on suspected cocaine gang“Sukhdev Singh had been an associate of the victim’s deceased parents, and had full knowledge of his learning difficulties. He is a manipulative fraudster who displayed a callous lack of empathy for his vulnerable victim. He exploited these vulnerabilities for his own advantage in order to systematically asset-strip him.
“Singh has behaved in an arrogant, deceitful way throughout and appears to have no remorse whatsoever for his crimes.
“It was a truly sickening and callous series of frauds committed against someone who should have been able to trust an accountant to act in his best financial interests.
“Once the case had been brought to the attention of North Yorkshire Police, the force’s economic crime unit was able to safeguard the victim’s remaining assets, and to protect him. The fraudulent transfer of the victim’s Harrogate home has been reversed, and we will now pursue a Proceeds of Crime order against this defendant to confiscate his ill-gotten gains and from this compensate the victim for his lost inheritance.
“While this can’t change the facts of the ordeal he suffered at Singh’s hands, I hope it provides him with some comfort and security.
“I would also like to pay tribute to the agencies who played a significant part in bringing Singh to justice and in safeguarding the victim, particularly Harrogate Citizen’s Advice Bureau who first raised the alarm, also North Yorkshire County Council social workers and the environmental health team.”
Four men have been arrested in an operation targeting suspected cocaine dealers in Harrogate.
The action follows an investigation by North Yorkshire Police’s organised crime unit into a gang suspected of bringing cocaine and cannabis into Harrogate and the surrounding area.
Warrants were carried out across Harrogate yesterday afternoon when the men were arrested and officers seized suspected cocaine, bulking agent, cannabis, cash, mobile phones and drugs paraphernalia.
The arrested men include one aged 22, from London, one aged 34 from Portsmouth, and two aged 37 and 40 from Harrogate. All four were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
The 22-year-old was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.
Read more:
- Police to spell out plans to tackle crime in Ripon
- Teen girl referred to youth panel after Harrogate McDonald’s police attack
The 34-year-old was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class B drugs and the 37-year-old also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to produce class B drugs.
All four remain in police custody for questioning.
Detective Inspector Fionna McEwan, of North Yorkshire Police’s organised crime unit, said:
“The latest action follows six months of painstaking information gathering behind the scenes.
“This work is not always visible but I can assure local people that we continue to work hard to disrupt organised crime and relentlessly pursue those believed to be involved.
“If you suspect drug dealing in your neighbourhood, or you believe someone is being exploited, please don’t hesitate to make a report to us in confidence, or anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers. Every piece of information, no matter how small, helps to inform a bigger picture.”
Reporting information about drugs
Anyone with any information is urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 1, and speak to the Force Control Room.
If you would prefer to remain anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Police say the signs of drug dealing can include:
Increased callers at a property at all times of the day or night
Increase in cars pulling up for short periods of time
Anti-social behaviour at a property
Not seeing the resident for long periods of time
Drug-related rubbish – small plastic bags, syringes
Windows covered or curtains closed for long periods
Get help for drug and alcohol addiction
North Yorkshire Police is holding a public meeting in Ripon this month to talk about its plans to tackle crime in the city.
There are longstanding concerns about persistent crime and anti-social behaviour in Ripon, with problems particularly prevalent during summer.
At the community engagement meeting on May 16, police will spell out how they plan to address the issues.
A police social media post said the meeting will “share with you the current crime statistics and trends for your wards, provide you with an operational overview of how your area is currently policed and also tell you about the proposed plans for the future”.
It added:
“The purpose of this meeting is to ensure your voice is heard with regards to how your community is policed.
“By voicing your concerns direct to us you will enable North Yorkshire Police to target and tailor our resources and plans to better meet your needs and prevent issues or escalation in your community.
“This is an open invite to all local residents, concerned people and partners agencies that are concerned in community support to come along and provide your perspective.”
Read more:
- Police launch crackdown on underage drinking in Ripon
- Ripon construction worker’s death an accident, inquest concludes
- Two free events for Ripon literary lovers on Thursday evening
The post added that people will “be invited to highlight any community issues, tensions or criminality that are affecting you”.
Inspector Alex Langley, from the Ripon neighbourhoods policing team, will chair the meeting, which will take place from 8pm to 9pm at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre on Dallamires Lane.
Underage drinking crackdown
These partnerships see police work with retailers, schools, neighbourhood groups, Trading Standards, local authorities and other emergency and health services to reduce alcohol problems.
As part of the initiative, retailers are assessed by Trading Standards and police to check they are not selling alcohol to children.
Woman seriously injured in car crash near Lightwater Valley
A woman has suffered serious leg injuries in a four-car collision near the entrance to Lightwater Valley Adventure Park.
The incident happened at the theme park on the A6108 near Ripon at around 4.35pm on Saturday, April 30. It involved a white BMW estate, a blue BMW, a grey Audi, a grey Mercedes Benz and a silver Suzuki car.
The woman, in the grey Audi, is receiving treatment at hospital. Other drivers and passengers received treatment for minor injuries.
The road remained closed until 8.20pm while the emergency services worked at the scene and carried out a full collision investigation.
North Yorkshire Police is asking anyone who saw the collision or recalls seeing any of the vehicles prior to the incident to get in touch. Officers are also appealing for any dash-cam footage that could assist with the investigation.
To offer information, email ben.prosser-waite@northyorkshire.police.uk or call 101, select option 2, and ask for Ben Prosser-Waite.
The reference number is 12220073181.
Read more:
- 64 sheep worth tens of thousands of pounds stolen in Harrogate district
- Teen girl referred to youth panel after Harrogate McDonald’s police attack