Police target hardcore joyriders

Forty hardcore joyriders have been identified by police fighting car crime in Northern Ireland’s most plagued district, it was revealed today.

With the authorities under pressure to stop the thieves causing death on the roads, new west Belfast commander Chief Superintendent David Boultwood has made the menace his top priority.

Up to 2,000 people have been maimed or injured across the North by stolen cars.

Another 43 people have been killed, including 13 people causing the mayhem behind the wheel, a lobby group has estimated.

The Families Bereaved Through Car Crime campaign team reckons around half of the victims have been from west Belfast.

A specialist Auto-Crime Team working in the area has already clocked up 500 arrests, but Mr Boultwood, who took control of the district last month, accepted he still faces a major challenge.

The Families Bereaved Through Car Crime campaign group works with officers as well by issuing critical assessments to police.

“We are trying to increase the knowledge of our own officers of the major players in car crime in this area,” he said.

“I have been told there are 40 very active car criminals.”

Officers in the West Belfast command unit have been using the police’s National Intelligence Model in a bid to track down the repeat offenders behind most of the misery.

As well stealing cars, the suspects are involved in so-called creeper burglaries to steal motor keys, ram-raids and other offences.

With the big sweeping roads and sprawling housing estates in the area luring the joyriders in, community and political representatives have been demanding tougher action.

“In this area I would say it is still our number one priority,” Mr Boultwood confirmed.

Protests organised outside the thieves houses last year by Sinn Féin failed to bring it to a halt, he claimed.

“They arrived down there with two or three hundred people on occasions and handed them letters telling them to either control their behaviour or leave the area.

“These people laughed at them. That is their attitude, they live completely on the margins of society in west Belfast.

“The only way we can deal with the police is by the community and the police acting together.

“Those are the individuals we are actively targeting, joyriders and car thieves.

“They drag in a number of other young people who live on the periphery of the car crime world, and taking out the main players is the feature for us.

“The issue now is getting them into court, and getting them convicted, and getting them put into Young Offenders Centres or jail, and getting them off the streets.”

His pledge to go after the ringleaders heartened Families Bereaved Through Car Crime spokesman Tommy Holland.

The group, which involves eight families who have seen 11 loved ones killed, calls the thieves death drivers.

Mr Holland claimed much of their frustration was at seeing the same faces back on the streets after arrests.

“Most of them don’t even live in west Belfast,” he claimed.

“Maybe six or seven will share a flat in the north of the city because of the pressure they come under over here.

“But they come for the big roads where they can do their hand-break turns and stuff.”

He accepted the Auto Crime Team was yielding results, with just the hardcore undeterred.

“It doesn’t surprise me there are 40 of them, but I think the public will be shocked,” he added.

“Now the onus is on getting them locked up.”