The Corby police team trying to break the tight criminal network behind dozens of linked motorbike thefts

Illegal off-road biking has been an issue in Corby for decades. As far back as 1985, the Evening Telegraph printed letters from residents complaining about problems with youngsters tearing around the estates without helmets.

Some families have passed the motorcycling baton down the generations and now the sons and grandsons of those featured in court reports two decades ago are appearing before magistrates for similar crimes.

The design of many of the estates makes it easier for bikes to nip down alleyways between streets, walkways and green spaces. It’s now two years since our reporters first went out with the Operation Pacify officers to see how they were using cameras to track the perpetrators.

Now Corby Neighbourhood Policing Team are renewing their efforts to tackle the issue once again.

Officers believe just nine key criminals could be behind the recent wave of motorcycle thefts in Corby.

Back in 2023 the team seized 59 motorcycles in Corby in just 12 months.

“This type of motorcycle use has been normalised by some people in the community,” said PC Crabb, who is leading the team’s latest charge.

"They no longer see the risks associated with it.

"When we first started Operation Pacify, there was a big focus on anti-social motorcycle use and a key part of that was seizing as many motorcycles as possible.

"But that created a situation where these people had lost their motorcycles so they had to go out and steal more.

"In the past 160 days in Corby and the surrounding areas we’ve had 30 motorcycle thefts which we believe to be linked to the same group of nine priority offenders.”

Officers are focusing their efforts on the areas where their nine nominals live and hang out. Their work is paying off, with one of their top targets – already banned until 2030 – spotted riding in Boston Close last month. He was arrested and is being held on remand ahead of trial.

Many of the stolen bikes are being used for adjacent criminality.

Our tour of Corby’s motorcycle trouble areas took us to Burghley Drive, where a burned out motorbike stolen from Finedon had been shoved in some bushes.

PC Crabb says: “Some of the stolen bikes are then used again to steal other bikes. They’re also used to transport drugs around the town.

"And if they’re stealing bikes from Finedon, we’re starting to wonder if they’ve run out of bikes to take from Corby.”

Recently PC Crabb was passing a youth football game while on patrol and a bike sped by on a path next to the game.

"There weren’t any kids on the path at the time but if there were, they wouldn’t have been able to stop,” he says.

"Their actions could create a potentially fatal accident.

“That’s at the core of it. While it’s not nice to have your property stolen, the aim is to reduce the risk of real harm to the community. Eventually someone is going to have a really serious collision."

This phase of Operation Pacify hopes to find out exactly where the key players are hoarding the bikes, with the help of locals.

“We need the community to work with us to find out where these bikes are being stored,” says PC Crabb.

"We’ve been given access to a lot of the boarded-up garages on the estates by the council but we’ve never really hit that pot of gold.

"Someone knows where these bikes are going. People must have notice there’s an awful lot of bikes with no number plates going in and out of somewhere, but we need that information to be able to get warrants to search outbuildings where they are being hidden.”

Police are conducting frequent patrols around hotspots including the Kingswood estate and Boden Close on the Danesholme estate.

In troublesome streets around Culross Avenue, Balmoral and Barnard there are plenty of areas where motorbikes can snake in and out, but police cars can’t follow.

During our tour of Corby some known young offenders on e-scooters float from one estate from the other, disappearing in cut-throughs and alleyways.

PC Crabb shows us where some of the worst areas are. But he says our morning visit to the area is likely too early for many of the riders who prefer to lie-in.

Issues around the five arches at the back of the Oakley Vale estate have been reported by locals, as well as more recent problems at Little Stanion, where bikes are illegally ridden from a public bridge at Cambrian Way across fields to the end of Livingstone Road in Oakley Vale.

During our tour, it’s easy to see why the big open green spaces between estates are tempting for those wanting to build up some speed away from traffic cameras and dashcams.

But one of the worst areas in recent years has been a long piece of overgrown plantation that was once used for iron quarrying, that stretches from the Holiday Inn roundabout all the way to Iron Mountain off Longcroft Road.

"It’s absolutely lethal,” says PC Crabb.

"There are old quarry workings that have 30ft drops. You can go over the crest of one and not realise what’s on the other side.

"If you crash in there then it’s possible nobody could even know for days.

"Getting the emergency services in there would be a real challenge in itself. Plus there’s all kinds of dangerous substances in the ground.”

There have been recent incidents of bike theft victims taking the law into their own hands in Corby and directly challenging those who they believe may have taken bikes. PC Crabb says this doesn’t help.

"We don’t want people to take the law into their own hands, we want them to be witnesses for us,” he said.

"If you act outside of the law then it might affect your credibility as a witness and mean the prosecution isn’t successful.”

The local team aims to call back everyone who rings the control room with reports of motorcycle nuisance or theft in order to reap as much intelligence as they can. They’ve returned 75 such calls over the summer.

"The last thing people need when they’re sitting outside is the noise of motorbikes going up and down. It really affects people’s quality of life,” says PC Crabb.

Members of the team will be at Asda in Phoenix Parkway on Thursday (September 19) to offer advice to motorcycle owners and hand out free throttle locks. Follow the team on Facebook for more details. If you have any information that could help the team, email them directly at [email protected]