This is the latest Winslow and District neighbourhood update, covering Creslow, Dunton, Granborough, Great Horwood, Hardwick, Hoggeston, Little Horwood, Mursley, Newton Longville, North Marston, Oving, Pitchcott, Singleborough, Swanbourne, Whitchurch and Winslow.
Winslow Police Office opening hours:
Monday to Saturday
10 am to 2 pm
Equipment marking service – we offer this service from the police office in Winslow. Our team of volunteers will be pleased to carry this out for you. We also have a good supply of crime prevention information which you can take away to read at your leisure.
Message from Inspector James Davies
I do not normally provide an update for these newsletters but I thought it pertinent to do so due to the forthcoming changes to Thames Valley Police and your local police area.
On the 1st June Thames Valley Police will be introducing a new operating model to help us better meet the needs of the public we serve. Within the new structure Aylesbury Vale Local Police Area will be centred around three core areas of business: response, investigation and neighbourhood policing.
The new structure has been designed to give the flexibility to better prioritise the way we respond to crime, ensuring that we can effectively and efficiently target our resources at the areas of greatest need at any specific time.
Under the new structure, local neighbourhood officers will continue to focus on working within the community identifying issues, problem solving and preventing crime.
To aide consistency I will be taking over the management of the neighbourhood police teams across the whole of the Vale while Inspector Chris Young from the rural neighbourhood team will move to take over newly formed Problem Solving Teams.
I look forward to leading my staff to provide a visible neighbourhood police team who engage locally to address problems in conjunction with the local community.
James Davies
Neighbourhood Policing Inspector, Aylesbury Vale Local Police Area
Local priorities
Thefts from vehicles and burglary non-dwelling
You said: Thefts from vehicles and burglary non-dwellings are occurring again.
We did: We are still patrolling the area to try to disrupt the offenders but sadly we cannot be everywhere all the time. Therefore, it is important to look at security of sheds, garages, outbuildings and barns. We have a lot of advice in the office so if you would like assistance with this please contact the Winslow Neighbourhood team who will be glad to help.
Rural crime
As I have often said in these Neighbourhood updates, dog owners must take with them a supply of dog poo bags so they can pick up after their dogs. Not doing so can incur a fine up to £1,000 and can seriously harm the health of children and cause abortion in cows and sheep. Dog walkers, not all I hasten add, pick up after their dog then hang the offending bag on a tree/in a bush or even throw it into fields containing livestock. Apart from being completely irresponsible it now transpires that horse’s natural inquisitiveness is leading to their deaths as they are consuming the bags and die as a result. In one incident two horses died, one was a mother leaving a foal to fend for its life on its own because, as the notice says, ‘the dog owner could not be bothered to take their rubbish home’.
If there is a bin provided, please use it, otherwise take the bag home.
Neighbourhood Watch
We have noticed an increase in cold calling and ‘Nottingham Knockers’ visiting various villages. Cold callers tend to offer driveway resurfacing, tree trimming, roof repairs, gutter cleaning, to name but a few jobs. Please do not buy these services from someone cold calling at the door. If you need such jobs doing contact companies yourself. Ask friends if they can recommend a person/company to do the job but in any instance obtain three quotes for the job before deciding who will do it. Trading Standards offer the ‘Buy with Confidence’ scheme and any company in this scheme has been vetted by them. If that company does not do a good job, Trading Standards will ensure any bad workmanship is corrected.
Nottingham Knockers are generally males with a bag of cleaning materials for you to buy at the door. They will show a card as identification which generally fake. These people must have a licence to trade from the Council in whose area they are operating. It used to be that if one council licensed them it was good for all councils. This is no longer the case. Their story about ‘help me to help myself’, etc. is usually a ruse so do not be taken in.
We have information in the Winslow Police Office to support you contact us if you need it. Generally Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinators also keep a suppy.
Fraud - Law Abiding Citizen Alert
Fraudsters are sending out a high volume of phishing emails to personal and business email addresses, pretending to come from various email addresses, which have been compromised.The subject line contains the recipient’s name, and the main body of text is as below:
“Hi, [name]!
I am disturbing you for a very serious reason. Although we are not familiar, but I have significant amount of individual info concerning you. The thing is that, most likely mistakenly, the data of your account has been emailed to me.
For instance, your address is:
[real home address]
I am a law-abiding citizen, so I decided to personal data may have been hacked. I attached the file – [surname].dot that I received, that you could explore what info has become obtainable for scammers. File password is – 2811
Best Wishes,”
The emails include an attachment – a ‘.dot’ file usually titled with the recipient’s name.
This attachment is thought to contain the Banking Trojan Ursniff/Gozi, hidden within an image in the document. The Ursniff Banking Trojan attempts to obtain sensitive data from victims, such as banking credentials and passwords. The data is subsequently used by criminals for monetary gain.
Protect yourself:
Having up-to-date virus protection is essential; however it will not always prevent your device(s) from becoming infected.Please consider the following actions:
· Don’t click on links or open any attachments you receive in unsolicited emails or SMS messages: Remember that fraudsters can ‘spoof’ an email address to make it look like one used by someone you trust. If you are unsure, check the email header to identify the true source of communication (you can find out how by searching the internet for relevant advice for your email provider).
· Do not enable macros in downloads; enabling macros will allow Trojan/malware to be installed onto your device.
· Always install software updates as soon as they become available. Whether you are updating the operating system or an application, the update will often include fixes for critical security vulnerabilities.
· Create regular backups of your important files to an external hard drive, memory stick or online storage provider. It is important that the device you back up to is not connected to your computer as any malware infection could spread to that as well.
· If you think your bank details have been compromised, you should contact your bank immediately.
Have Your Say
As part of our policing role, protecting the vulnerable in our society is a Force priority. So, to this end you will see us attending meetings where the more vulnerable attend. Whilst we call it ‘Have Your Say’, community engagement probably describes it better.
Free Church, Newton Longville 10:00-11:00 PCSO Rachel Found
9 May, 6 Jun, 4 Jul, 1 Aug, 29 Aug, 26 Sept, 24 Oct
Village Hall, Little Horwood 11:00-12:00 PCSO Wendy Taylor
23 May, 20 Jun, 18 Jul, 15 Aug, 12 Sept, 11 Oct
Village Hall, Great Horwood 10:00-11:30 PCSO Wendy Taylor
24 May, 21 Jun, 19 Jul, 16 Aug, 13 Sept, 10 Oct
Market Day, Winslow 10:00-12:00 PCSO Wendy Taylor
3 May, 31 May, 28 Jun, 26 Jul, 23 Aug, 20 Sept, 18 Oct
Thames Valley Alert: is a free service which provides information to subscribers about crime and police activity in their area via phone or email. It also includes information on what we and our partner services are doing to bring offenders to justice or combat anti-social behaviour. You can sign up by following this link: www.thamesvalleyalert.co.uk
Contact us: If you want any advice or would like to contact the Neighbourhood team you can call us on the police non-emergency number 101 but if your call is an emergency then dial 999. You can also contact us via email:
– please note this email address cannot be used to record crimes or for urgent matters.
If you have information about crime or anti-social behaviour in your area, but you do not want to speak to the police, please call the Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
Useful websites and email addresses:
Thames Valley Police –www.thamesvalley.police.uk
Crimestoppers for youth –www.fearless.org/about
TVP Facebook – www.facebook.com/thamesvp
TVP Twitter – @TVP_Aylesbury
Trading Standards –www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk
Scams – www.actionfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040
Thames Valley Horsewatch – www.thamesvalleyhorsewatch.org.uk
Thames Valley Countrywatch – www.thamesvalleycountrywatch.co.uk