Essex Police's distinctive, on-loan New Holland T6 tractor will attend numerous country shows across the county to help combat the scourge of rural crime.

Our Rural Engagement Team have been busy helping to keep our rural roads safe by seizing uninsured vehicles and recovering stolen vehicles to reunite with their owners.

A distinctive, on-loan New Holland T6 tractor has joined Essex Police to help drive the reduction of crime in the county's rural communities.

Together with Hertfordshire, Kent and Norfolk, the seven forces in the Eastern Region pledged a year ago to work across policing borders and launched Operation Galileo to do exactly that.

Officers from our Rural Engagement Team today, Saturday 15 October 2022, stopped three people in the Uttlesford District on suspicion of trespassing in pursuit of game.

The court heard they each allegedly took a basket with 20 bottles of milk to a value of £38 and emptied their contents on to goods and the carpet at the store.

The team regularly patrol our rural road network and carry out road safety speed checks while they are doing so. The majority of vehicles seized in the past nine months – 77 – have been cars and vans found to be uninsured.

PC Paul Glensman, one of the officers who found the stolen equipment, said: “Plant equipment is an expensive investment for any business. To have it stolen is a devastating loss for any company and it has a massive impact on any business activity.

The plant equipment – a tractor and trailer – had been reported stolen from Tilbury following a suspected raid in the early hours of August 17.

Described as an “abhorrent” case of animal abuse, secret filming revealed Paul O’Shea capturing a fox with his terrier and using a garden fork to eventually remove it from the dog's jaws.

Greater Anglia said the 10:18 BST Liverpool Street to Clacton service was derailed after it hit the animals on the line near Thorpe-le-Soken at about 12:00 on Saturday.

SPEEDWATCH volunteers say a busy rural causeway is being blighted by dangerous illegal races and careless drivers.

A man has admitted animal cruelty following an incident involving a fox in the Coggeshall area.

Paul O’Shea, 49, of Mount Bures, appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.

ONE of the nine puppies stolen from a property in Bournemouth has been found... 160 miles away in Essex.