HELENSBURGH police have prosecuted 140 speeding offences in only four months, a report has revealed.
Officers also found more than one in 10 of those offences to be committed by drivers who were under the influence of drink or drugs.
Work also remains ongoing to decrease shoplifting and fraud offences in Helensburgh and Lomond, including the presence of a van related roadshow in the area.
A report from the police will go before Argyll and Bute Council’s Helensburgh and Lomond Community Planning Group at its meeting on Tuesday, August 19.
A police spokesperson said: “Speeding and driving complaints remain prevalent across Argyll and Bute. We continue to support community concerns in this area through direct action, prevention and intervention work.
“Proactive speed checks have been carried out across hot spot areas. We continue to work with partners including Argyll and Bute Council looking for innovative ways to positively influence road users.
“Since April 1, 2025 [a total of] 140 drivers have been prosecuted for speeding on our roads with 16 detections for those driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs.
“Our preventions team continue to work with partners across our communities at road safety planned events.
“These events have been well received and allow a multi-agency approach to improving safety on our roads. where we can positively influence driver behaviour and understand community concerns.
“As we approach our peak time across our road’s networks our national roads policing team will be providing a high visibility presence across Argyll, they will also be delivering initiatives such as ‘Operation Close Pass’ which is aimed at tackling dangerous overtaking of cyclists and raising cyclist awareness amongst other road users.
“Our national motorcycle unit will be out supporting local policing across Argyll in the coming period specifically to encourage safe and responsible road use by motorcyclists. There focus will be engagement, education and enforcement.
“We are also working with the Safety Camera Partnership to have their speed detection van deployed at various locations again to deter and detect those intent on speeding.”
Turning to acquisitive crime, the spokesperson added: “Shopliftings have seen a reduction over recent months because of cross-country intelligence sharing and partnership working. A specific group of travelling teenagers have been caught and reported for many offences within Helensburgh.
“This group were causing significant harm within our communities and were using the travel networks to avoid detection.
“We have 24 recorded shopliftings from April 1 which is down on the same recoding period as last year. Crimes of fraud also remain prevalent. We have recorded seven frauds since April 1.
“Prior to April we saw a number of online frauds recorded. These frauds relate to online sales sites such as Facebook marketplace and online investments such as crypto currency.
“Our partnerships team have been out recently in Helensburgh with a newly kitted out crime prevention van known as the ‘scam van’ this is a roadshow of various prevention tips and advice through practical presentations. The van attracted some great local interest and was featured on our social media channels.”
