There will be increased police patrols in Bentley today (12 July) and into the weekend following a spate of offences of criminal damage.

In the early hours of Friday morning, we received multiple reports of bricks being thrown at cars and windows of properties being smashed in the Balfour Road area.

Local neighbourhood and response officers were dispatched to the area alongside officers from our Operational Support Unit (OSU) to investigate these reports and search for the perpetrators.

Various enquiries have been carried out, including house-to-house visits and CCTV trawls of the local area, and we are now deploying more resources to the affected area in Bentley.

Doncaster North Neighbourhood Policing Team Inspector Sebastian Dent said: "This was a seemingly random attack in which multiple cars and properties were attacked in the middle of the night."

An investigation has been launched to piece together the evidence from each report of criminal damage that we have received, with work ongoing to identify the culprits."

Officers have remained in the area since the offences were reported to us and there will be increased patrols in the area over the course of the day and tonight as we head into the weekend."

Doncaster City Council will also deploy a neighbourhood response camera vehicle to the area overnight to monitor any disturbances."

Insp Dent has urged anyone with information about these offences to come forward.

His team are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have relevant information in relation to a group of four to five people believed to be in their late teens who were wearing balaclavas and were in the area at the time the incidents were reported to us."

We are gathering lots of information to find those responsible for these attacks and we need the public's support and cooperation to help us with our investigation," Seb Dent said.

"If you are a local resident and you have any concerns or worries, please stop our officers while they are out and about and speak to them.

"They are there to help you, support you and ultimately, keep you safe from harm."

If you have relevant footage, including CCTV, dashcam or doorbell footage, please submit it via this link.

If you have any other information, please call us on 101, quoting incident number 25 of 12 July 2024.