Page 227 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

His part in the supply of information leading to the sting was passed in a
report to the Crown Prosecution Service and his final sentence was reduced
by six months, so he considered his actions worthwhile.

His further information over the coming months and after his release, paid
further dividends for us with more crime solved and villains locked up.

Talking of car thieves, one of the most prolific was a young man who lived on
Castle Vale who had a reputation for outrunning and escaping police
pursuits. In one such pursuit, he stole a high performance car, a Ford Capri
rs3100 Cosworth and was belting along the lanes between Castle Vale and
Minworth. Traffic cars had pursued him and he left them for dust. The traffic
boys had radio’d Yankee-Mike (force control) and a road block had been
set up across a narrow river bridge. Our villain (I can’t bring myself to call him
a hero), saw a slight gap in the block ahead, but it meant a really risky
manoeuvre. The split second before entering the bridge and colliding with
the police car, he swung he car to the left nearside, bounced the nearside
tyres up onto the bridge wall so the Cosworth was driven at a 45 degree
angle, taking out the goodies car in the process, with the Cosworth roof
scraping the police car as it then fled off at high speed and he made good
his escape.

The escapade was the talk of the division for days.

Gavin Buckley and I were incensed with the cheek of this lad and we set
about digging for information about him. Whilst we strongly suspected who
was driving the Cosworth, without capturing him and the vehicle, suspicion
alone wasn’t enough. In any event for the days that followed, he had the
good sense to go to ground and visits to his home address yielded nothing.

I made contact with Ginger an upon mentioning the name of the suspect
from Castle Vale, he gave us more meat to chew on. He told us he was part
of a car ringing team with an industrial unit in Hockley, near Birmingham city
centre. Ginger described the unit to us, that it had roller shutters both ends.
Nicked motors apparently went in one end and were stripped, with engine
and part numbers being professionally removed and cloned. The car would
either come out the other end with a new colour and identity or be stripped
for its parts which were sold into the automotive marketplace.

There was only one man we wanted, the kid who thought he was Stirling Moss
(F1 racing driver). Gavin and I went to the unit in Hockley where we saw a
Ford Escort XR3i parked outside. We sat and waited. Sure enough our suspect
emerged and made his way to the XR3i. Gavin stopped a car leaving the car
park and asked the driver to block the driveway which he agreed. Gavin
joined me and we approached the XR3i. The lad wasn’t daft and must have Page227
guessed we were coppers because he started to reverse the car. When he
stopped, I took out my warrant card, approached his window, introduced