Bulgarian driver stopped by police was child abuser

HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland Derek Penman welcomed the new report

He was arrested and is currently being deported from the UK after being referred to Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE).

The case featured in a new report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), which revealed that more than 5000 foreign criminals were identified in less than a year after Police Scotland improved intelligence sharing with Europol.

It said there had been a 400 per cent increase in information shared with the pan-European force since the creation of Police Scotland in April 2013.

Police Scotland has merged the intelligence units from the former eight Scottish forces into a single National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).

HMICS found that NIB’s International Assistance Unit (IAU) had raised awareness of Operation Nexus, which targets foreign nationals committing crimes in Scotland, leading to the identification and deportation of a number of people.

The action also helped identify a shoplifter from Poland who had been charged with multiple shoplifting offences, breach of the peace and assaults in Aberdeen. He was also caught as part of Nexus and removed from the UK.

The report said: “We established that the IAU had raised awareness across all 14 divisions of Operation Nexus and we found evidence of effective joint working between the IAU, custody division and HOIE.

“Four dedicated officers from the IAU work alongside an embedded officer from HOIE supporting the process of checks to establish whether a foreign national arrested in Scotland is wanted overseas, has previous convictions or is present in the country illegally.

“Between May and December 2014, 5425 foreign national offenders were reported by custody division, highlighting the engagement between police officers and foreign national offenders in Scotland.”

HMICS carried out an inspection of the National Intelligence Bureau and the divisional intelligence unit in Ayrshire. Police Scotland is to roll out a new intelligence structure, broadly based on the Ayrshire unit, this year after a national review.

Derek Penman, HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, said: “Criminals do not respect borders and the creation of a single police service in Scotland has led to improved levels of information-sharing and close working with other crime enforcement agencies across the UK and abroad.

“There is evidence of good work at divisional and national level in relation to oversight of serious organised crime and intelligence.”