October 26, 2021 8.33 am This story is over 29 months old

Three crime gangs off the streets of North East Lincolnshire

Communities are a little safer in North East Lincolnshire

| Photo: Adobe

Three organised crime gangs have been taken off North East Lincolnshire’s streets so far this year.

Members of another gang will also soon be sentenced, and are expected to be imprisoned.

This will effectively halve the number of local organised crime gangs (OCGs), which are mainly linked to drug dealing, home burglaries and rogue trading.

In 2018/19, there were five known to be operating in the area.

This rose to eight in both 2019/20 and 2020/21.

However, a report to North East Lincolnshire Council’s Crime Scrutiny Committee has revealed that several groups have been successfully disrupted or prosecuted since March.

It also sheds light on a huge crackdown on crime which Humberside Police carried out while the country was under Covid-19 lockdown.

A period of intense action saw 1,172 arrests and 537 warrants executed force-wide for offences relating to drugs, robbery, burglary, sexual offences, and theft.

Drugs with a street value of £9,715,195 were successfully seized.

During lockdown last year, offences dropped by 14% in North East Lincolnshire.

There were 17,524 reported in 2020/21, compared to 20,370 the year before.

Vehicle offences were down 50% as people were told to stay at home, and robberies, burglaries and thefts were also down by around 40%.

Three offences which did rise over lockdown were anti-social behaviour, drug-related offences and domestic abuse crimes.

The East Marsh became the hotspot for anti-social behaviour, overtaking the West Marsh as shopping centres and pubs closed.

Police anticipate that figures are likely to increase again over the coming months.

“As eased lockdown restrictions continue, overall crime figures are expected to rise again in line with previous trends,” the report says.

“As we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic we will focus our resources into protecting our communities from the most serious and prevalent crime, and support our most vulnerable communities.”