CCTV appeal: Man kicked and punched in vicious Lincoln attack

Lincolnshire’s economy chief said the benefits of Brexit have not yet been realised due to COVID and other issues, as the county faces a major workforce shortage and the UK a “worse than a storm” financial future.

Councillor Colin Davie, the county council’s portfolio holder for Environment and Economy, however said Lincolnshire was “well-placed” to survive the hardships ahead.

“I don’t think there is any time in our history, probably since the 1930s, where so many issues have aligned at once that could fundamentally destabilise the country, let alone the economy.

“However, Lincolnshire has always been more resilient than most parts to economic and political storms, and I think it is still well-placed to come through the period we are about to enter.

“[This] in my view is going to be not just a storm, it’s going to be something so much more fundamental than that. It’s going to make us all question what government is about, what work is about, and who we believe and who we trust.”

“Everyone’s impacted by rising energy costs and political instability in the world, we are facing challenging times and I’ve got no doubt that the autumn and winter period will test all of us politically and as individuals and members of society like we’ve never been tested before.”

He said workforce would be the biggest challenge for the nation and Lincolnshire, along with a falling birthrate.

The councillor, who is also a district member for the East Coast, said: “I’ve got businesses in on the coast who can’t recruit staff to work in their restaurants or bars and the owners and managers are doing the work themselves.

“They can’t do it forever and if they can’t get staff they’ll end up closing – that’s what we’re gonna see in the autumn if we’re not careful.”

He said there needed to be a step-change in the way workforces were utilised and greater investment in automation.

Brexit not solely to blame for issues

However, Councillor Davie warned against people using Brexit as a “blame mechanism”.

A recent planning application for 60-bed accommodation Staples Brothers farm in Sibsey saw the owners blame the EU-departure for making it increasingly difficult to find seasonal workers.

“Brexit has made sourcing appropriate labour more difficult, and we’ve never been able to source sufficient labour from those living in the UK,” they said in the planning form.

However, Councillor Davie argued the bigger challenge was the weaker exchange rate for the pound, meaning that it was nearly on par with what the migrant workers could earn in their own countries.

He added that the migrant’s own countries were facing similar labour shortages.

“So employing foreign labour is more expensive, and they don’t want to come because they can work in their own country.

“Why would you want to come to the UK when you can virtually earn the same money in terms of buying power at home and not leave your families behind.”

He added: “The benefits of Brexit have not been realised yet because we’ve been too busy dealing with COVID.

“There are measures the government can take if they want to drive the Brexit dividend forward, and that’s what they should do.”

He did, however, accept that “the bureaucratic process of bringing workers here – the process they have to go through – needs sorting out”.

“That is an issue, but the biggest challenge now is workforce availability. We’re now competing for workforce like we never used to.”

Asked if he felt Brexit was putting workers off due to fears over how they were viewed or treated as non-English, he said: “No, they’re not at all.”

“They can work at home because they’ve got the same problems we’ve got – an ageing population, less young people available – so they’re having to hold on to their own people by paying them more money.”

He said for Brexit to move forward, there needed to be a “clearing of the decks”. With government ministers taking control from civil service advisors and doing “what the right thing is for our country”.

He said this meant more local, fairer funding and control over service provision.

A million-pound organised crime group operating the biggest car theft conspiracy the force has ever seen have this week, on Wednesday 10 August 2022, had the final member of their gang convicted at court following officers successfully dismantling their criminal chop shop entities.

The gang were operating various chop shops across North Lincolnshire, with large quantities of brand new and high end vehicles such as Land Rovers, Jaguars and BMWs, all of which had been stolen, stripped down and the parts sold and shipped overseas.

The first chop shop was uncovered by officers in August 2020 on Hebdon Road in Scunthorpe, and led to a lengthy and protracted investigation, as Detective Inspector Mick Keech explains: “As part of the investigation, we uncovered 6 chop shops across North Lincs, all of which had numerous vehicles in various dismantled states and an abundance of car parts.

“When car part dealers operate legitimately, they either keep, or sell the parts. However in this case, due to the vast volume of vehicles the gang were stealing at such a fast pace, they couldn’t dismantle the cars as quick as what they were stealing them, and often parts were just being thrown away.

“However with expert assistance and collaboration with manufacturers, we were able to identify 72 vehicles, stolen from 17 different forces across the country as far north as York and south as Surrey.

“Nineteen of the vehicles had been stolen from our force area mainly from the Pocklington area and linked to two in one burglaries, all of the vehicles were broken down so we were unable to return them to their rightful owners”.

As the investigation progressed, 12 warrants were executed in Scunthorpe at residential and commercial properties across the Humberside force area, which resulted in eleven men later being charged with various offences.

Five of the men entered not guilty pleas to the charges against them, with four separate trials all taking place at Grimsby Crown Court, starting last year in August and concluding on Wednesday 10 August.

All from Grimsby, Tomas Bruzikas, 33, of Hiles Avenue, was found guilty of Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and Converting Criminal Property, Lukas Voveris, 29, of Spencer Avenue, was found guilty of Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and Converting Criminal Property and Guntars Dubrenieks, 30, of Wells Street, was found guilty of Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and Converting Criminal Property.

From Scunthorpe, Giedrius Eimutis, 45, of Mulgrave Street, was found guilty of Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and Converting Criminal Property and from Hull, Kantrimas Zukauskas, 43 of Wincolmlee was found guilty of Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and Converting Criminal Property.

Two men were found not guilty at trial.

Four of the men, all from Scunthorpe, entered guilty pleas to the charges against them at earlier court hearings.

Sarunas Eidininkas, 26, of Somerby Road, pleaded to , Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and converting criminal property, Lucas Lidzius, 28, of Ripon Close, pleaded to Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and converting criminal property, with Charlie Rhodes, 25, of Orchard Close, pleading to Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and converting criminal property and Darren Watson, 27, of Queensway, pleading to Conspiracy to handle stolen goods and converting criminal property

They will now all be sentenced at dates to be announced.

Detective Inspector Mick Keech continued: “Based on the car parts that were identified as part of the investigation, the value of the groups crimes amount to the value of what is believed to be over £1.2 million, highlighting the actual scale of their operation and the exhaustive work that we put into dismantling their criminality.

“We seized 208 devices including mobiles and laptops and had a total of over 1,500 exhibits in evidence from car parts to CCTV, with so many of our departments involved in the investigation from Operation Galaxy and the Neighbourhood teams, to the investigators in CID, the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, Financial Investigation Unit and Intelligence.

“Organised crime groups like these are highly sophisticated and will use a variety of methods to steal and obtain vehicles, often with keyless cloning devices to try and get access without needing keys or industrial scale car jammers, which stop stolen cars being tracked.

“It is important everyone remains vigilant and takes steps to protect their vehicle from thieves, whether at home, work or in public areas. There is more advice in regards to crime prevention on our website https://www.humberside.police.uk/protect-your-vehicle

“We are committed to taking down organised crime groups and we will always thoroughly investigate any type of criminality associated with them. These groups are a blight on our society those responsible will be dealt with and brought to justice.”