Four men fined total of £400 after being caught fishing illegally in River Test

Four men caught illegally fishing on the River Test were issued with £100 fines and had their fishing equipment seized during a partnership operation last week.

Officers from Hampshire Constabulary joined forces with twenty river keepers and enforcement officers from the Environment Agency as part of an operation in the Test Valley area on May 22 to target poaching, hare coursing, non-residential burglary, theft of quad bikes and rural crime in general.

The four men, who were all from the Slough area, made off when they were approached by a river keeper while fishing on the river near the Mayfly Pub, on the A3057 north of Leckford.

Police officers stopped their vehicle three minutes later and all four men were given community resolutions of £100 each and had all their fishing equipment taken off them.

Three other suspicious vehicles were stopped during the ten hour operation - on the A3057, Roke Manor and Romsey areas - and details of the vehicles and their occupants were taken.

PC Ian Bassett, from the force's Country Watch specialist rural crime team, said: "This demonstrates the huge value of working in partnership with other agencies and our local landowners and river keepers.

"As well as our colleagues from Roads Policing Unit and the Romsey and Stockbridge Neighbourhood Teams, this operation was fantastically assisted by enforcement officers from the Environment Agency and the river keepers.

"We successfully disrupted illegal activity on the river and this type of operation will continue. We want to send a message that we are out there on patrol and we will robustly target suspicious vehicles and people."

The community are our eyes and ears and we encourage you to report all incidents as soon as you are able to. If it’s happening there and then, always call 999.

You can now report crime or suspicious activity online by visiting our website www.hampshire.police.uk or by clicking on this link https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/

Additionally there is a new facility to report Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), using the following link:
https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/asb/asb-b/report-antisocial-behaviour/