The Molesey, Dittons & Hinchley Wood Neighbourhood Watch Group
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The Molesey, Dittons & Hinchley Wood Neighbourhood Watch Group Chairman – John Haberfield Contact Tel 0208 398 5256 Email [email protected] AUTUMN / WINTER 2016 In this edition: Goodbye to Elaine Burtenshaw: Elaine. Our Crime Reduction Advisor, retired from Surrey police in May, and her role is being covered by Vic Smith until a replacement is recruited. Elmbridge Police organisation changes: Details about who your local officers are in each police neighbourhood, and how best to make contact with your police neighbourhood team. Scams in the spotlight: Examples of new scams to be aware of. A foiled identity theft to obtain a debit card, scanning data from contactless payment cards, and phoney HMRC inspectors. Crime Statistics: We can no longer provide the crime statistics table that’s been part of our newsletter for many years. It became increasingly difficult to compile following the merger of Surrey and Sussex police databases and new systems not designed to hold information suitable for our needs, plus it relied heavily on much personal effort from Elaine to obtain and format the data. However, we now receive regular updates of crimes and trends, courtesy of Vic Smith, which is far more useful than a set of numbers. Elmbridge Police update: Vic Smith reveals good news on our crime figures over the last 6 months. Once again I’d like to thank everyone who’s fed back details of local crimes, to me or your coordinator. Rest assured, when we circulate information we don’t give out names or addresses; only the road name. John Haberfield Farewell to Elaine Burtenshaw Elaine Burtenshaw was our Elmbridge police Crime Reduction Advisor (CRA) and played a very active role with NHW; she was a member of the Elmbridge NHW Committee, attended and presented at all of our Imber Court Coordinators’ meetings, wrote articles for each of our newsletters and managed to deliver the 6-monthly update on crime statistics. Elaine has now left Surrey Police. After 37 years with Surrey (32 years as an officer, last 5 as a civilian) her retirement plans were bought forward to May this year after finding a home on the Isle of Wight. I understand she will be volunteering at the donkey sanctuary. We wish her all the best in her new home and quieter life! Welcome to Vic Smith Until a replacement is recruited for Elaine’s position, the role is being covered by Vic Smith CRA, based in Spelthorne. Originally there were three CRAs in Surrey police Northern Division, one for each borough; Elmbridge, Runnymede, and Spelthorne. For some time Elaine and Vic had been covering all 3 boroughs between them, and now Vic is covering all three, so he has a heavy workload! But Vic is already very actively involved with Elmbridge NHW and you will find his first newsletter report further below. Elmbridge Police organisational changes In the previous (April ’16) newsletter and follow-up email update we explained the new Surrey Police local policing model and what the changes would mean for Elmbridge police; led by the Borough Inspector, this resulted in the following teams and an overall increase of 50 officers: Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) – smaller but dedicated to Elmbridge; tackling chronic issues affecting local communities; working with partners to make communities safer; PCSO powers to be reviewed: 2 Sergeants, 2 PCs, 11 PCSOs; Area Policing Team (APT) – respond to calls requiring police attendance; will investigate crimes from start to finish; liaise with specialist resources; led and tasked by the Neighbourhood Inspector; aligned to Elmbridge and supporting the SNT: 9 Sergeants, 70 PCs. We can now provide further detail about the police officers assigned to the SNT and to our individual police neighbourhoods. The core borough team covering Elmbridge is: Sgt Charlotte Chambers, Sgt Greg Turner, PC Joanne Fahey, PC Chris Smith. In addition to which there are 11 PCSO posts. Within Elmbridge there are 10 police neighbourhoods. Within our NHW region, the relevant teams are: West Molesey East Molesey & Weston Green The Dittons & Hinchley Wood PCSO Jan Aldogan PCSO Jan Aldogan PCSO Nigel Oates PC Chris Smith PC Chris Smith PC Chris Smith (Note: PCSO Jan Aldogan is covering two neighbourhood areas pending recruitment to fill a vacancy) Our Neighbourhood Watch region, as the name implies, covers East and West Molesey, Thames Ditton, Long Ditton, and Hinchley Wood. It also includes Weston Green, and some parts of Esher. It is worth noting that our NHW District boundaries are notional, and not rigidly aligned to any other recognised boundaries – they evolved from a time when a large part was in the Met police jurisdiction and local authority boundaries were different from what they are today, and to a certain extent how to divide up the area evenly between the available NHW District Coordinators. However Surrey Police neighbourhoods have traditionally been directly aligned to local authority voting wards, so if you have any doubt about which neighbourhood team covers your road, it will be the same as your voting ward. Having defined the formal allocation of local neighbourhood teams and the areas they cover, this is not really an issue on a day-to-day basis, as officers regularly help other colleagues in adjacent areas. The Elmbridge Police website ( www.surrey.police.uk/elmbridge/ ) allows you to select your Neighbourhood and see the local officers for your area. If you know who you want to speak to, call 101 and ask for or leave a message for them, but be aware they may be on leave etc. So, to avoid any disappointing lack of response, it’s best to ask to speak to the Safer Neighbourhood Team and you’ll be passed to whoever is on duty (there are also voicemail options). However, If a resident is unsure who to call, and it is not an emergency (999, if a crime is being or has just been committed, or if someone is in immediate danger) or needs a conversation there and then with Police (101, if urgent but not an emergency), then staff can be emailed via the mailbox, details of which are on each police Neighbourhood web page in the ‘Send us a message’ section, at the start of which is a link to an ‘online reporting form’ for non-urgent incidents, or otherwise scroll down and complete a simple form which you then submit as an email. This will then be picked up by the office manager, and disseminated to the appropriate member of staff. The office manager will know who is on leave and who is on duty and available. This is monitored Monday to Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Scams in the spotlight (Identity fraud, scanning contactless cards, …) Identity fraud to obtain a debit card (from one of our members, 30th September) “I was cleaning my car in the drive yesterday when I witnessed our postman being accosted at the bus stop and asked for the post by a man who purported to live at my address. The postman refused and reported it to me. I shouted at the man and he mumbled something about it being Lower Green he wanted and then took off. I reported this to the police who said it was an attempt to intercept my post. The man was about 50, 6ft tall, slim, grey hair wearing a grey zip-up sweater and dark trousers, carrying a black Mercedes Benz umbrella, up at the time as it was drizzling. Guess what, in the post this morning I received a new debit card and PIN number which I hadn't requested!!! Barclays are investigating, and believe it was an attempt to obtain my debit card. Residents should be aware of people hanging around when the post is being delivered.” To avoid identity theft and identity fraud (from Action Fraud): Don’t throw out anything with your name, address or financial details without shredding it first. If you receive an unsolicited email or phone call from what appears to be your bank or building society asking for your security details, never reveal your full password, login details or account numbers. A bank will never ask for your PIN, a whole security number or password. If you doubt the source of a call, wait 5 minutes and call your bank from a different telephone making sure there is a dialling tone. Check statements carefully; report anything suspicious to the financial service provider concerned. Don’t leave things like bills lying around for others to look at. If you’re expecting a bank or card statement and it doesn’t arrive, tell your bank or card company. If you move house, ask Royal Mail to redirect your post for at least a year. Credit reference agencies may offer a credit report checking service to alert you to any key changes Stealing data from contactless payment cards (from Rip-off Britain, BBC1, 19th September) A contactless payment card works by using NFC (Near Field Communication). These cards can be scanned by anyone with a mobile phone with a particular down-loaded application installed. An example showed brushing a phone against someone’s back pocket (where the card was) and instantly copying the card number and other details from the front of the card. The phone scanner doesn’t need to touch the payment cad, just be in close proximity (up to 4cm or 2 inches), so it works easily through clothing and/or a wallet. It cannot access details on the back of the card such as the 3 digit security code, but it was still possible for a thief to use the details to make fraudulent purchases with the stolen card details, and not just limited to the contactless payment limit! They set up a fake on-line account and used the card details to make an on-line purchase; some suppliers do not require the 3 digit security code when purchases are made on-line.