Lincolnshire Police does not have to reveal results of investigations into ram raids in county, including in Stamford, Boston, Crowland and Market Deeping, Information Commissioner’s Office has ruled
Ram raid victims claim they have been left in the dark by police after the Information Commissioner supported a force’s decision not to reveal if criminals are being brought to justice.
During a time period of just under six months there were five ram raids across the area - four in Lincolnshire and one in Rutland - as well as one attempted cash machine theft.
Half a dozen more have been reported to Lincolnshire Police since 2019.
A search for ‘ram raid’ on the Lincolnshire Police website delivers no results with all previous news releases on the crimes having been deleted. According to the force, this is due to a six-month time limit to ensure it’s not showing out-of-date information.
But how do we know if the criminals committing these offences are being brought to justice?
LincsOnline lodged a Freedom of Information request in April last year to try to find out if any of the 12 Lincolnshire crimes are linked and whether the criminals committing these offences have ended up in court.
Lincolnshire Police, however, refused to provide any of this information.
We referred the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office as we were not satisfied that the public has been well served by the police’s refusal to provide information.
The complaint was not upheld as the Information Commissioner ruled Lincolnshire Police was correct to withhold the information.
Here are the reasons why the police force and Information Commissioner argue the information should not be released:
In rejecting the request, Lincolnshire Police accepted: “The confirmation or denial that information is held would lead to a greater informed public both nationally and locally.
“Dependant on whether information is held, would identify whether there is a local/national issue with identifying suspects of ram raids and how extensive that may or may not be.”
It argued, however, the information requested could be used to undermine prosecutions or aid offenders.
Both are assertions that we disputed.
We believe providing this information helps demonstrate transparency and openness, which should be an overriding factor in making the decision in order to give the benefits that Lincolnshire Police strives for.
If criminals know that Lincolnshire Police is successfully catching and prosecuting those committing ram raids it may deter them from carrying out this crime. If Lincolnshire Police is in fact not catching the criminals, it is in the public interest for tax-payers to know.
The force said it could not respond to the question ‘was a charge made?’, which requires a yes or no answer, for 10 of the ram raids because of ‘personal information’.
The Information Commissioner said if identification is ‘reasonably likely’ the information should be regarded as personal data.
Because the ram raids involve multiple offenders, confirmation or denial would reveal something, which may not already be known, about their associates.
The Information Commissioner added: “There is also a realistic possibility that, based on the level of detail which is already available, other friends and family members may be aware of the offenders’ involvement and be able to identify them from what is already known.”
Personal information was also cited as a reason for refusing to provide names, dates of birth and addresses for those charged.
This is standard practice and something we contested.
Anyone who sees someone with the same name being accused of a crime would want it to be made clear it’s not them. To do this newspapers have a responsibility to also include an accurate full name, address and age.
But the Information Commissioner believes it is criminal offence data, which is protected under GDPR, and if it wasn’t, giving dates of birth is ‘unnecessarily intrusive’ and likely to result in ‘unwarranted damage or distress’.
For the more recent ram raid incidents Lincolnshire Police argued that the information was already in the public domain, which we disputed as it is unclear if the force’s website is regularly updated to reflect the most up-to-date information.
The Information Commissioner ruled that a ‘public authority is only required to disclose information which is held at the time a request is received’.
“This information does not have to be up-to-date or accurate,” they added.
We believe it is in the public interest for Lincolnshire Police to answer our request for information as it shows transparency and accountability, ensures justice and fair treatment , and secures the best use of public resources.
But the Information Commissioner ruled this is outweighed by the exemptions, including that confirmation or denial might be generally harmful to the force's ability to manage investigations effectively.
“Clearly, it is not in the public interest to jeopardise the ability of a public authority to investigate crime effectively,” they said.
Lincolnshire Police says it doesn’t have information relating to whether a case was taken to court, dropped or if proceedings are still active.
What effect are the ram raids having on local people?
Victims of the ram raids claim they have been left in the dark by police.
Jegatheeswaran Rajaratnam, known as Jega, is still feeling the devastating effect of a ram raid at his store, the Family Shopper store in High Street, Market Deeping, which happened in March last year.
Thieves used a JCB to knock down the front of the store he has owned and run for two years, before breaking into the cash machine and taking the money from inside.
At the time, police said a man in his 20s from Cambridgeshire was arrested in relation to the incident and was released on bail.
“I don’t have any update from the police. I don’t know why they haven’t informed me about anything,” he said.
According to Jega, damage to the value of £85,000 was caused and sales have since dropped. He is also still fighting his insurance company to get a pay out.
Jega has also chosen not to replace the cash machine as he says the risk of ‘losing everything’ isn’t worth it.
Arjun Parmar had taken over the Crowland Spar shop just eight weeks before thieves used a stolen telehandler to rip the cash machine from the front of the North Street building in December 2023.
Footage from that night shows the telehandler fork penetrating the front of the shop about seven times – sending bricks flying and exposing electrical wiring which caused a surge and the eventual destruction of frozen stock.
The ram raid caused £65,000 worth of damage and the shop lost an estimated £90,000 during the four months it was closed.
Police officers said at the time that three or four suspects were believed to have been involved in the incident and two were seen to run off. When approached the following month they said ‘investigations are ongoing’.
Arjun has ‘no idea’ if anyone has been caught.
Like Jega, he is still having to fight for an insurance pay out to cover the losses and since reopening has seen a drastic drop in sales.
“It’s not been profitable since it happened,” said Arjun, who believes many customers switched to shopping with competitors during the shop's temporary closure.
Which other businesses have been affected by ram raids in recent years?
A JCB stolen from a farm in Uffington was used to ram raid Booze 4 Less in Stirling Road, Stamford and steal a cash machine containing tens of thousands of pounds in November 2023.
A couple of weeks later at the beginning of December 2023 there was an attempted cash machine theft at Tesco Express in Harrowby Lane, Grantham followed by a ram raid on January 16, 2024 in Spilsby Road, Boston.
All four men arrested in connection with the Boston ram raid were released on bail.
The BP petrol station off the A1 at Tickencote in Rutland was rammed with a telehandler before thieves made off with a cash machine in October last year.
An investigation was launched by Leicestershire Police but no-one was arrested, a spokesperson confirmed when asked by LincsOnline.
There was one ram raid in 2022 which happened at the One Stop Shop in Kirton on April 9 and two in 2021, one in Ancaster’s Co-op in May and one in Holbeach’s Nationwide Building Society branch in December.
Overnight on May 5, 2020 two Co-op shops were hit in Long Sutton and Crowland, a couple of months later Billingborough’s store was targeted.
Crowland's Co-op in West Street had been targeted a year before in April 2019 after raiders used a Mitsubishi 4x4 and fork lift to ram it in the early hours of the morning.
Do you think the authorities are right to refuse to answer? Let us know in the comments below…