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Police raided a remote rural premises and discovered six vehicles including tractors, JCBs and trailers, which officers said had all be confirmed as stolen. Investigators confirmed they have since been connected to thefts from Greater Manchester and Cheshire over the past few months.

Commuters were stranded at railway stations when a suspected gang of criminals took two separate lengths of copper cable from lines. Officials in the North West had to work through the night to try to fix the problem in time for the morning. However, the signals were still out of action at rush hour, and engineers were looking for a possible third section of stolen cable.

One firm affected by a crime spree targeting several businesses said it had to buy some laptop computers so they can be taken home at night in case the premises was broken into again. Neil Wright, of T&S Crowley estate agents based in Bolton, said of the thefts: “We’ve been here for 27 years and never seen anything like this.

A council shrugged off concerns about a lack of toilet facilities after it described its cutbacks as the worst since the war. At Manchester all bar one of its toilets will be shut down. Minister Grant Shapps argued that more should have been done to cut middle and senior management rather than closing 18 public conveniences.

There are fears police forces will have to take officers off the street to deal with the need to slash spending. For example, the four Welsh police forces are set to lose 1,600. This estimation is contained in a report by the chief financial officer of the Police Authorities of Wales.

Police in southern England have recently bought five gadgets which issue spoken warnings in order to alert people to the threat of car crime. The emphasis is on reminding drivers to secure their vehicles and leave no valuables inside. Inspector Rob Bryan, head of Southall Police said: "Reducing thefts from vehicles is a priority for us.

CCTV has helped to identify hundreds of criminals in the capital over the past 12 months. The majority of CCTV cameras in London are privately owned, usually by businesses, with the remaining cameras belonging to public authorities (such as local councils), road safety partnerships and the police.

Police are seeking more information on a red Ford Ka which they think could be connected with the mass theft of petrol from a forecourt. The Ka was seen to enter the filling station at around 2.20am at the weekend around the time of the offence, and Welsh officers said they are also keen to trace two males and two females who were also seen at the station at Port Talbot.

The Identity Documents Bill has just been granted Royal Assent, which shuts the door on attempts to create both a UK-wide ID card regime and the National Identity Register. Following Royal Assent, a counter will be placed on the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) website to count down the time until cards become invalid.

A surge in offences have been recently reported to police across the West Country where fake water officials have tricked their way into premises before stealing cash. A frequent part of the con is that victims are being told that there is blue dye in the water, and they need the victim to run the kitchen taps to check the system. A police spokesperson said: "There is no longer a Water Board – it is a term used only by bogus callers.

The value of a watchdog scheme to increase detection rates of those stealing fuel has again been shown during a recent incident. BOSS, an independent trade organisation founded by oil firms campaigning to reduce petrol station crime, has begun a system up and down the UK.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, figures show last year there were dozens of prisoners set free by mistake before their jail terms ended. The Prison Service said the overwhelming percentage of prisoners who were incorrectly let out had been recaptured in order to serve the remainder of their time, but a handful of them are thought to be still free.