A BENEFIT of Canal & River Trust's enforcement team was shown when two of them were able to discover a stolen boat and re-unite it with its owner.
The data checker Nathan Arries and enforcement officer Liz Sollars were thanked by the owner of a stolen boat after they spotted something suspicious in their boat sightings.
No licence
The boat was spotted with no licence showing, which immediately alerted Nathan who then sent on its name that was displayed to Liz who realised there was only one boat of that name on the Trust's database, and called the owner to check if it was the same craft.
While the owner was describing the boat, and how it was currently in a marina, it became obvious that it was the same vessel. Someone had taken it from the marina, and was now cruising away with it. This is not the boat that was taken from Mercia Marina.
On high alert
The theft was reported to the police and Liz put all the Trust's local teams, from enforcement to customer service to the people working on the canal, on high alert. Nathan followed up a lead the owner had passed on and, confirming that it was the same boat, waited for the police and the rightful owner to get there. With the boat returned, the police are now searching for the thief.
Paul Griffin, Enforcement Operations Manager at the Canal & River Trust, enthused:
"It's great that this story has a happy ending and the boat has found its way back home. I'd like to say a big thank you to Nathan and Liz for pulling out all the stops to track down and return the vessel to its rightful owner. Our team's presence on the bank can be vital in situations like this. Boat thefts are, thankfully, rare and we do everything we can to support boaters. If a vessel goes missing we'd encourage boaters to tell the police in the first instance, and to get in touch with their local enforcement team so we can work together to try and track down the boat safely."
The Trust have not released the name of the boat or the name of its owner.