POLICE in Crewe have been commended for the way they investigated a string of arson attacks in Crewe.

Several wheelie bin fires were reported in the town the beginning of the year.

Any of them might have resulted in a serious fire with extreme consequences.

At the same time Cheshire Police received two hoax calls, regarding a fight and a missing child.

They involved officers in unnecessary inquiries and members of the public were inconvenienced.

Kamgar Khan Orakzai, a partnership analyst, noticed a link between a telephone used for one of the hoax calls and those used to report the fires.

He also noticed a link between one of the phones and a young man who was known to the police.

Home Watch co-ordinator Hayley Goodwin spotted a connection between this case and several other hoax calls which related to a small area of Crewe.

Working together, Kamgar and Hayley developed an intelligence package which included a recording of one of the calls.

At Crewe Neighbourhood Policing Unit, PC Paul Myatt was able to link the recordings which reported the fires and the hoax calls.

PC Myatt arrested and interviewed the suspect.

The man admitted starting the fires and making the hoax calls.

He was charged with wasting police time and arson and had four other counts of arson taken into consideration.