Prolific criminals arrested for Rochdale crimes

Date published: 10/07/2007

Four people have been arrested for crimes committed in Rochdale thanks to a series of early morning raids across Greater Manchester. Thirty six prolific offenders of burglary, robbery and vehicle crime, were taken in by police throughout the region with a further 16 offenders arrested at various times during the planning of the operation.

Four people were arrested for crimes of theft, robbery, burglary and theft of a motor vehicle in Rochdale.

It has been part of a weeklong operation by a 25-strong specialist team of officers from Greater Manchester Police's Volume Crime Unit (VCTF) who were responsible for arresting the 36 offenders. These offenders alone have been responsible for 200 crimes across GMP over the last 18 months.

The operation, codenamed Scarlet, focused on the top burglary, robbery and vehicle crime offenders.

Inspector Stuart Pemberton of GMP's Volume Crime Unit said: "The team were specially assembled to trace and target the Force's most wanted offenders. We spent a number of weeks gathering information and intelligence on their whereabouts, to ensure we caught as many as possible during the week of action."

Divisions compiled the list of offenders they were unable to locate themselves, and in many cases these were criminals who live on one division but offend on another, making them harder to trace. The list also included offenders who live outside Greater Manchester but travel into the area to commit crime.

Inspector Pemberton continued: "GMP is dedicated to targeting the offenders who consistently break the law and through operations such as Scarlet we can get these criminals off the streets.

"I would like to reassure the people of Greater Manchester that we will continue to take action against the offenders who blight our communities and reduce the quality of life for law abiding citizens."