Pubs join crime fight

Pubs are joining forces with high-street retailers in an initiative to catch shoplifters. The radio link-up scheme, thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, is launched in August with the help of a £30,000 grant from Leicestershire Police. It will operate throughout Market Harborough and Leicester's Oadby and Wigston areas, with the aim of cracking down hard on shoplifters who, after making their getaway, invariably head towards the pub to sell their haul. More than 30 pubs and shops have already signed up, with each paying £20 a week rent to be part of the project. Tom Flynn, landlord of the Three Bells, Oadby, whose pub is taking part, said: "We definitely need something like this. Bringing retailers in will make the scheme a strong one." Shop owners will tip off pubs about thieves, who could then be banned from the pubs as well as the shops. Retailers already signed up for the project include Asda, Sainsburys, Iceland, Boots, Wilkinsons and the Co-op. Smuggled vodka found Customs officers seized more than 14,000 litres of smuggled vodka from a lorry at Poole ferryport in Dorset. The discovery was part of an intelligence-led operation at the port on 21 June. During a search of a Portu-guese registered lorry, which travelled to the UK from Spain, officers found cases of vodka hidden behind cabbages. The estimated duty evaded was £140,000. The 36-year-old lorry driver was arrested and has been bailed for two months. Customs were involved in another raid, on cigarette smugglers, at commercial premises in Retford, Nottinghamshire, over the same weekend. Around 5.9m cigarettes with a value of £1.35m were seized and five arrests were made. Police probe pub blaze Investigations are being carried out into the cause of a blaze at a pub in Blackwood, Gwent, in the early hours of Monday. The fire brigade was called to the George in the High Street at 3am after the fire started on a ground floor. Four appliances were called to the scene. Police said nobody had been injured. Scenes of crime teams carried out investigations. White jailed for break-ins Burglar Shaun White embarked on night-time break-ins at pubs in Birmingham and Solihull within a month of being released early from jail, a court heard. But White was caught after he and an accomplice disturbed the landlord of the Nags Head, in Hockley Heath. Drug addict White, 33, of Blakesley Road, Stechford, admitted two charges of burglary and asked for 14 others to be considered. He was jailed for two-and-a-half years, to follow the remaining 20 months of his previous sentence. Court told of Die Hard act A burglar, who got his head stuck in a metal shaft after trying to break into a pub, was told by a judge that he had only just escaped a prison sentence. David Gardner, 28, of Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle, hit the headlines after getting stuck headfirst down a ventilation chimney at the Twin Farms pub in Newcastle. Newcastle Magistrates Court heard on Monday how Gardner, a drug addict, was only rescued after an early-morning delivery man heard his shouts for help. Firefighters rescued him with winches, but Gardner was arrested as soon as he was freed from the shaft. Gardner, who had been drinking at the pub before his attempted break-in in March, admitted burglary with intent at an earlier hearing. At a previous hearing, his solicitor Peter Docherty, said: "I think he must have been watching Bruce Willis in Die Hard to think he could get into a building through a ventilation shaft, commit a burglary and then actually get away with it." Magistrate Edward Luck said: "It was a very silly attempt at crime and you risked the lives of firefighters as well as yourself." Gardner was given a 12-month drug treatment and testing order and warned he faced prison if he did not comply.