Essex Police donate seized potatoes to animal sanctuary

Essex Police have donated 1.4 tonnes of seized potatoes to a local animal sanctuary after recovering them during a fraud investigation.

Officers responded to reports of a theft in Rochford and found 100 sacks of potatoes in the rear garden of a property. The discovery was made as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged £18,000 fraud.

Because the potatoes are perishable, the force’s Business Services manager, Russell Pavey, was asked to arrange their disposal. Or, as Essex Police put it: "he sautéed it out."

Pavey said: “It’s a win-win for Essex Police. By chipping in to help a local good cause, we’ve also saved public money by avoiding the costs associated with waste disposal.”

Rather than pay for removal and destruction, the team contacted an animal sanctuary to ask if the food could be used to feed animals in care.

“We saw an opportunity to do something a little different," Mr Pavey explained.

"Rather than waste valuable public money on skip hire and see the potatoes go to waste, we reached out to an animal sanctuary to see if they could make use of the spuds.

“The response was overwhelmingly positive. The sanctuary relies entirely on volunteers and donations so they were incredibly grateful for the donation. These potatoes are going a long way to feeding a variety of animals in their care.” Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.