Man charged after £10,000 worth of laptops and tools stolen from Lancashire school

It was reported to police at around 9am on Sunday that two burglaries had occurred at a school in Lancaster.

Three men had been seen on CCTV breaking into the school, with a total of around £10,000 worth of damage being caused and a further £10,000 worth of items stolen, including laptops and tools. A school van was also stolen.

At around 4.40pm on Sunday the police received a report the van had been seen being driven erratically in the Dallas Road area of Lancaster.

The van was located by the TacOps team and the driver of the van was asked to stop for officers.

Upon speaking with the driver the situation escalated and resulted in the officers deploying a Taser and the man making off on foot.

After a short chase he was detained in Lindow Street.

The van was recovered, along with several thousands of pounds worth of items.

Leigh Smith, 36, of Heaton Road, Lancaster, has since been charged with criminal damage and was due to appear at Blackpool Magistrates' Court today.

The incident is one of many the TacOps team dealt with over the weekend; others included a stolen car, theft from a post office and drugs related offences.

Ch Supt Wendy Bower, of the TacOps team said: "Over the weekend we experienced high demand on the service, with a high volume of calls in to the 999 and 101 operators.

“The incidents are just a small number of the total incidents attended by the TacOps team over the weekend – and of course an even smaller number of the incidents dealt with across the force as a whole.

"However these incidents illustrate the excellent work our officers do, and show that no matter how busy we are, good, proactive work is always going on to tackle the issues that matter most to our communities.

“As always, we would urge anybody with concerns about crime in their community to report it to us on 101 or online at doitonline.lancashire.police.uk. Always dial 999 in an emergency.”