POLICE work in Burnley is a far cry from investigating war crimes in Bosnia, but for Detective Inspector Simon Leach it is still a challenge he is looking forward to.

Det Insp Leach, 39, has just joined Burnley CID and has been kept busy investigating the recent Bookers robbery in Gannow Lane.

But his list of jobs since he joined the police force in 1979 is long and varied.

The most memorable was in September 1994 when he became a senior investigating officer for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia working for the United Nations for three years.

He was responsible for investigating all crimes committed by Croats and Bosnian Croats, arresting more than 21 war criminals. This week he heard that General Blaskic was given life for his part in the war crimes - an investigation which Det Insp Leach led and saw through to the trial.

As a member of Lancashire Constabulary's senior investigating team he has more recently worked on several major murder inquiries across the county, including the murder of Burnley boy Christopher Hartley in Blackpool.

Det Insp Leach, who now lives on the outskirts of Blackburn and formerly worked for Accrington CID, said: "I am excited about coming to Burnley. Every job in the police is a challenge and there's certainly lots of skills and experience that I can bring to Burnley to attack the issues of volume crime.

"I want to send a message out that there are a number of people in Burnley and Padiham that are responsible for committing crime and the police know who they are and they will be targeted.

"Our job is to reduce crime and to target offenders that are responsible for committing crime on a regular basis because we want to make the community a safer place to be.

"From what I have seen so far there is a very dedicated team of detectives here. They are skilled and motivated."

Det Insp Leach started off in uniform doing panda patrol in Accrington for three years, before moving on to Accrington CID for two years and joining the drug squad for a further two years, covering Burnley, Nelson and Padiham.

He was then promoted to detective sergeant in 1988 and returned to Accrington before moving to Hutton to join the major crime support unit which took him to various parts of Europe.

He was later promoted to uniform inspector before setting off for Bosnia.

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