Local gardaí in Limerick are hoping that a pilot scheme between themselves and milk lorry drivers will be rolled out long-term following positive results during an initial six-month period.

The scheme involved a text alert system similar to neighbourhood watch, where lorry drivers collecting milk for Dairygold, Tipperary Co-op and Kerry Group alerted the local gardaí in Bruff of any suspicious activity on their early morning rounds.

The scheme was the brainchild of local Bruff garda David Hennessy after an incident in March 2017.

“I was on patrol one night when a milk lorry driver who was working rang at 3am to say he had driven past a quad being rolled down a road by a group of men,” Hennessy explained.

“The culprits got into difficulty about 10 miles from the farm they’d stolen it from. We recovered the quad and returned it to the farmer when he reported it missing.”

At the time the pilot was rolled out, figures showed that the risk of burglary in the Bruff area was over 15% higher after 8pm, with crime levels increasing over winter months.

It’s understood the initiative had a significant impact on reducing rural crime in the local area and gardaí found it a considerable benefit.

With spring calving set to get under way in the coming weeks and lorry drivers set to return to work, gardaí are hoping that the initiative will be continued long-term, with the potential to roll it out into other areas in the future.