SHOPLIFTERS who come to Barnoldswick in search of easy pickings are in for a nasty surprise.

Many town centre traders already participate in an anti-crime radiolink scheme, with each shop having its own radio transmitter and receiver, all directly linked to the police station. If a trader sees anything suspicious they can immediately alert the police station, with all the other traders alerted at the same time.

Though still in its infancy, the radiolink scheme has already paid dividends. Recently, police were alerted to shoplifters at work in the town and they were promptly arrested.

Now the scheme is being backed up with another initiative aimed at shoplifters.

Under the Catch and Deter Scheme (CADS) anyone caught shoplifting from one shop in the scheme will be banned from all the other participating shops.

Each shop taking part will display a special poster, alerting shoplifters to the consequences. If a shoplifter is arrested and charged, then special paperwork is served on them while in custody. It clearly sets out that they are banned from all the shops for a set period, and offenders must sign to say they understand it.

PC John Holding, who got the radiolink scheme up and running and is now doing the same with CADS, explained: "This is to dissuade professional thieves, to let them know they're not welcome here in Barnoldswick."

With many of the bigger town centres reaping the benefits of anti-crime closed circuit TV, he said some hard core shoplifters were looking elsewhere and heading for smaller towns. But he stressed that Barnoldswick was ready for them, as some had already discovered to their cost.

"We are really talking about the hard core professional thieves here. Some of them make their living at shoplifting," said PC Holding.

"All the traders in the scheme will be circulated details of known and convicted offenders from throughout the area, and they will be regularly updated, with new convictions added every four to six weeks.

"We are confident that the courts will also take a very dim view of anyone who ignores the ban and offends again in any of the premises they are already banned from."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.