M4: 10 immigration arrests as police target crime network

Officers from Wiltshire Police Roads Policing, in collaboration with DVSA and Immigration, executed a day of action targeting unsafe vehicles and the use of fraudulent documents by drivers. Fraudulent documents often indicate organised immigration crime. Immigration staff made ten arrests for immigration offences, whilst Roads Policing officers issued 35 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs), including 16 weight offences and eight tyre offences.

DVSA examiners issued GBP1,200 of FPNs for offences including tyre defects, overweight vehicles, insecure body panels and lighting defects, as well as two offences relating to the HGV driver continuing past their legal tachograph hours. Roads Policing Inspector Neil Duffin said: "This was another successful multi-agency day of action targeting unsafe vehicles and the use of fraudulent documents on our roads. "Operation Foxtail is a regional initiative targeting commercial vehicles using the M4 corridor, particularly focusing on document, licence and insurance fraud, which is used to prop up organised crime.

"It looks to take away the capacity of organised criminals to conduct organised immigration crime, human trafficking and other high-harm crime types.

"It also deals with companies that persistently break the law and take a financial decisions to break the law and put other road users at risk.

"We will continue to proactively conduct operations like these to ensure our roads are as safe as possible."