152 vehicles stopped as part of police operation on A34

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary and Thames Valley Police Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit stopped 152 vehicles as part of an operation to crackdown on offences being committed on the A34 and criminal use of this arterial route.

Resources from across the Joint Operations Unit, including ANPR vans, the Commercial Vehicle Unit and the Dog Section, were deployed along the whole of the dual carriageway as part of a joint operation between both forces that took place on Wednesday (23/11) and Thursday (24/11).

This operation was part of the wider national Drive Insured campaign, running this week.

152 vehicles, including 30 HGV’s, were stopped over the two days with five arrests being made.

In one case, officers seized £12,000 and a man was arrested for money laundering and immigration offences.

26 vehicles were seized, nine of which were for no insurance.

14 Fixed Penalty Notices were issued for a variety of offences including for no MOT, not wearing a seatbelt, insecure loads and excessive driver hours.

In addition, our safety camera vans detected 982 vehicles exceeding the speed limit.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Bettington, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: “This is one of the biggest deployments of our Roads Policing resources and skillsets for an operation such as this.

“The aim being that anyone driving on the A34 could be stopped by officers who were seeking to detect, deter and disrupt drivers who were committing any offences.

“As such, we stopped over 150 vehicles for a variety of offences.

“Keeping the roads safe is a priority for the JOU Roads Policing Department and we have managed to take a number of dangerous drivers and vehicles off the roads.

“Road safety is not something to be taken lightly and our Roads Policing Units work tirelessly to keep our roads safe every day.”