Police operation targets town centre

In an upstairs room at Kingsgate News on Cross Church Street one of the sniffer dogs, Bradley, found a large amount of tobacco in a cupboard.

A WYTS officer explained that with “a packet of cigarettes costing £10 or more, counterfeit cigarettes at £3-£5 are considerably cheaper”.

As well as the crackdown on illegal tobacco the aim of the police operation was to provide a high visibility presence within the town centre and public reassurance.

Earlier this month the Examiner reported that up to 30 people were involved in a major disturbance outside McDonald’s in Huddersfield town centre in the early hours of the morning – the second night in a row that there has been trouble there.

On Saturday, one young man in a bloodspattered white T-shirt, who had been given a nasty head wound after being assaulted, was cared for by officers on John William Street before being sent to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for treatment.

But Insp James Kitchen, who covers the town centre beat, was anxious to stress that despite occasional incidents of disorder Huddersfield was a safe place to enjoy a night out.

In addition, officers were busy trying to detect the illegal possession of drugs which led to the unusual sight of a sniffer dog being walked round bemused drinkers at Wetherspoon’s Cherry Tree pub.

A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said efforts had also been made to detect premises providing sales of alcohol to underage persons, (there was a test purchase conducted earlier in the day) and looking for shops offering tobacco to underage persons.

Elsewhere in the town there were checks of roadworthiness of vehicles on public roads, while other colleagues tackled knife and gun crime by trying to increase the use of special wands at clubs and bars.

Volunteers also were in the town centre handing out drink safety information and ‘spikeys’ to young women designed to avoid having their drinks spiked by unscrupulous men.