Three youths have been arrested for unlawfully taking a vehicle, driving dangerously, and fleeing police earlier this week.

On Wednesday morning (26 July) Police responded to reports of youths driving a potentially stolen vehicle in an erratic manner all over Invercargill city.

The driver of the vehicle was baiting Police staff trying to encourage police to chase them and driving in an extremely dangerous manner all over the city.

Instead of pursuing the vehicle, Police were able to monitor the progress and planned a safe intervention to bring the incident to an end.

When Police located the vehicle, the driver fled police and crashed shortly afterwards, and the occupants fled on foot

.

Staff quickly set-up cordons in the area and a dog team unit tracked and located youths.

Three 13-year-old youths were spoken to regarding six unlawful takings of motor vehicles. 

One youth appeared in the Invercargill Youth Court and the other two were referred to Police Youth Services, while another has yet to be spoken too.

The quick work from our staff has resulted in these high-risk offenders being identified and held to account.

They were taken into Oranga Tamariki care. 

Area Commander Southland, Inspector Mike Bowman said the group were believed to have beeen involved in similar offending, in the Southland area over the past few months.

While resolutions like this are positive, we know they are cold comfort to the people who have been targeted and have lost their vehicles or had property damaged, he said.

Police and Victim Support will be providing ongoing support to the victims of this offending and Police are committed to identifying and apprehending those responsible.

We hope this gives our community reassurance that we take this offending extremely seriously and we will respond, investigate and work hard to bring offenders to account, Bowman said.

Anyone who has concerns about criminal activity is urged to contact Police on 111 if it is happening now, or 105 if it is after the fact.