1) A man caught with two types of drugs in a van on Penley’s Grove Street in The Groves has been given an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a £15 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs by York magistrates. Benjamin George Alexander Askey, 43, of The Village, Stockton-on-the-Forest, pleaded guilty to possessing a small amount of cannabis for his own use and possessing a trace of cocaine found in a bag.

 

2) POLICE are investigating after an animal charity’s van was damaged. Staff at the Blue Cross Centre in Topcliffe, near Thirsk, reported that one of its vans was damaged overnight between Saturday, December 27 and Sunday, December 28. The driver’s window was smashed and the bonnet and the right wing were completely ripped off. The back bumper was also damaged. Anyone who can help police with their inquiries is urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 – select option 1 – and pass information to the Force Control Room. If you prefer not to give your name, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111. Please quote 12140223795.

 

3) POLICE have appealed for information on the whereabouts of David Smith, 51, from Bedworth in Warwickshire, who was due to appear at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court in October, charged with fraud. A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said the charges related to cold calling and taking advance cash payments for work which was never carried out, dating back to November 2013. Smith is known to have connections in the West Midlands, Doncaster, Sheffield, Selby and Leeds.

 

4) THIEVES broke into a Malton house and stole the keys to a car before driving it away. The burglars targeted the home on Wheelgate at around 3am on Monday. An hour later the Vauxhall Astra - registration YH14 KKM - was spotted at the Woodlands Stop and Shop BP garage in Wetherby Road, Harrogate, where two men filled up with diesel before driving off without paying. Det Con Toby Forsdyke, of Scarborough CID, urged anyone with information to phone 101.

 

5) POLICE chased a 57-year-old man down the street in York after he was allegedly caught driving while disqualified for the third time in a month. The York man was said to be driving a Toyota in Moor Lane, Woodthorpe, on Tuesday lunchtime when officers spotted him. He was arrested after a short chase. The car was seized. North Yorkshire Police tweeted: “We’ve just stopped and arrested the driver for the 3rd time in a month for disqualified driving #WontLearn #Seized”.

 

6) POLICE in North Yorkshire arrested 95 people on suspicion of drink or drug driving in December. Almost a dozen of those have already been fast-tracked to appear before magistrates and were banned from driving for between 12 and 36 months. Final numbers have not yet been announced, but North Yorkshire Police’s annual Christmas drink and drug driving campaign was launched on December 1, and last year saw 118 arrested in the same period.