Police tackle anti-social behaviour in Staines Town centre

PC for Staines Town, Sam Coleman organised the operation, which saw 32 people stopped and 62 vehicles checked.

She said: "We have had lots of reports of these incidents on Sundays. The youths go into shops and throw things around and steal things, security guards get assaulted, and during the evenings it gets worse when they drive fast around the car parks doing wheel spins.

"It is quite intimidating for the shoppers, so I decided to organise the operation to show the residents what we are doing and also to deter the anti-social behaviour."

More than 20 police officers, some in plain clothes, drove around the town looking for cars driving without insurance, focusing on Wraysbury Road and Kingston Road, while other officers walked around and kept in contact with shop radio systems to disperse groups of youths congregating in stores and restaurants.

Trading Standards and officers from Spelthorne Council were also present to crackdown on littering.

Reports came in throughout the day of kids riding rocking horses in Mamas and Papas, and using threatening language to people in Costa Coffee.

A worker in Costa said: "They were saying things to the public but didn't act on it. I have had to close the store before because there were so many of them."

PC Coleman thought she would integrate the anti-social behaviour crackdown with the Drive Smart operation because a lot of the trouble makers come from out of town.

Three vehicles were seized for driving without a licence or insurance, while three motorists were given tickets for using a mobile.

Six drivers were given tickets for not wearing a seatbelt, while four were penalised for driving without MOT.

Steve Barlow, security manager at Two Rivers, said the problem has been on-going for years, and along with colleagues, has been assaulted in the past.

He said: "They gather in large numbers which intimidates the general public. They race
around the car park in their vehicles, and they go into the shops and throw things on to the floor, so we have to go in and clear them out.

"The McDonalds Drive Thru get a lot of problems, as they block their cars into the entrance."

Mr Barlow said it seems Staines appears to be a meeting place for the youths, as they come from as far away as Slough, Guildford, and Dartford.

He added: "In August last year there were reports of a group of them in Nando's so a security guard went down and asked them to disperse.

"The groups sometimes go in and just order one drink between 40, so when they started giving the guard racist abuse, he kept his cool and asked them to leave again, but they assaulted him."

PC Coleman said she hopes to hold more days like this in the future