Kent Police

An arsonist who started two fires close to oxygen tanks and MRI scanners at Medway Maritime Hospital has been jailed for life.

Luke French entered the hospital grounds in September 2018 and started the fires less than a metre away from lorries containing the scanners.

The 29-year-old, of Peregrine Drive, Sittingbourne, admitted arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered and was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday (5th July).

Two suspected burglars were arrested shortly after a break-in was reported here in Sittingbourne.

At around 1.30am yesterday morning (Tuesday 18th June) Kent Police were called to reports of intruders being disturbed at a property in Cedar Close. Officers attended and carried out a search of the local area. A number of items believed to be stolen, including bank cards and car keys, were recovered nearby.

More than 700 cannabis plants have been seized from a property in Sheerness.

Officers from the Swale Community Policing Team attended the house, in New Road, yesterday afternoon (Thursday 16th May) after receiving concerns the address was being used to grow the substance.

Inside officers uncovered a large cultivation spread across numerous rooms, along with evidence to suggest electricity was being illegally abstracted to help grow the plants.

Ten charges relating to the theft of fragrances, cleaning products and groceries from various shops in Sittingbourne have been made against one woman.

Michelle Bull is alleged to have targeted stores in the High Street, Eurolink Way, Northwood Drive, Quartz Way and Sheppey Way in Bobbing, on ten occasions between Friday 8th February and Friday 26th April.

The combined value of items stolen is reported to be worth over £1,400.

The 30-year-old, of no fixed address, has been remanded in custody to appear at Medway Magistrates' Court today (Friday 3rd May).

More than 400 vehicles were speed checked by Kent Volunteer Police Cadets on Saturday (27th April).

The cadets, based with the force's Sittingbourne troop, attended four locations across Sittingbourne and Sheppey for a day of road safety checks.

Each used speed guns to record a vehicle's speed and provided words of advice to drivers who had been stopped due to their speeding.

The roads checked were Woodstock Road in Sittingbourne, Chestnut Street in Danaway and both Scocles Road and Minster Roads, in Minster-On-Sea.

Kent Police are appealing for witnesses following the death of a pedestrian in Borough Green.

At around 3.15pm on Thursday (18th April) officers were made aware of concerns for the welfare of a person near a roundabout on the A25, Borough Green Road. Patrols and the South East Coast Ambulance Service attended and a man, aged in his 30s and from the Sittingbourne area, was pronounced deceased at the scene. His next of kin have been informed.

Swale Police officers are searching for a suspected runaway thief after being called to a report of two men travelling in a suspected stolen vehicle on Swale Way, Kemsley, at around about noon today (Wednesday 17th April).

A police spokesman told SFM News: "our officers located the van in stationary traffic and, as they approached it, two men are reported to have made off on foot."

It's believed that following a search of the local area a 17-year-old boy from the Sittingbourne area was arrested on suspicion of theft and remains in police custody.

Kent Police detectives are appealing for witnesses after a handbag was reported stolen during a robbery in Sittingbourne at the weekend.

The incident is reported to have taken place in Pembury Street shortly after 9pm on Sunday (17th March).

Detective Constable Rob Feasey told SFM News: "The victim, a woman in her 40s, was by her parked car when a man asked her for the time and grabbed her handbag. During a short struggle she fell to the floor, suffering cuts to her knee, elbow and hands".

A distinctive tattoo on a burglar's hand has led to him being jailed for seven and a half years after he admitted threatening a woman with a knife in Sheerness.

Charlie Gannon, 21, of Valley Side, Chingford, was jailed on Friday (15th February) at Maidstone Crown Court after he admitted one count of aggravated burglary.

The judge heard how Gannon, along with three other men, targeted a house in Sheerness High Street at around 1.00pm on Sunday 7th October 2018.

The Kent Police Swale Local Policing Team 3 spent some time this morning (Monday 28th January) on the Great Easthall Estate following complaints by local residents and public transport users.

Great Easthall Way, between Freeman Drive and Oak Road, was targetted in response to drivers repeatedly contravening no entry signs and using a designated 'Bus Lane'.

19 traffic offence reports were issued, which carry a £100 fine and 3 points on the driving licence for each driver concerned.