Have you seen wanted man Patrick Ward, 32?



He is being sought by police after being convicted in his absence of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to commit criminal damage after a trial Preston Crown Court last week.

The offences relate to Patrick’s involvement in over £313k of damage caused and stolen items at the historic Thwaites Brewery site in Blackburn over the spring bank holiday weekend, when a group of travellers set up camp on the grounds.

Despite requests to move, they remained on the site.

On Sunday 27 May, after staff had been to collect items of value, Patrick, along with two other men and a 17 year old boy, as well as other accomplices not yet convicted, looted office buildings stealing televisions, computer equipment, high value alcohol and electrical copper wiring from throughout the entire site. The damage not only cost the company hundreds of thousands of pounds, it also meant they had to relocate to some new premises sooner than planned.

The group were moved on by police escort on Bank Holiday Monday (28 May).

DS Dave Bowler from Blackburn Police said: “Ward knew he was due to stand trial but did not turn up to court. He is due to be sentenced in January.
“If you have seen him or know where he is, please make contact with us. My advice to Patrick if he sees this appeal is to attend a police station before he makes matters worse for himself.”

Patrick Ward is described as white, around 6ft 3ins tall, of large build with short wavy brown hair and green eyes. He speaks with an Irish accent and has a tribal tattoo on his left arm and the name ‘Carol’, along with a shamrock, tattooed on his right arm.

Ward is a member of the travelling community and has connections across the country as well as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where he currently may be.

If you have any information that could assist, please email 3776@lancashire.pnn.police.uk or call 01254 353863. If you fail to get an answer, dial 101, ask for Lancashire Police and quote crime reference ED1811359.

Alternatively, you can contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at ‎crimestoppers-uk.org.

I wouldn't hold my breath over the outcome.


The gang of about 100 travellers, laden with stolen goods, was escorted from the Thwaites site by the few police not engaged in trawling Twitter for 'offensive' tweets. Only four were later arrested, and that was only as a result of a public outcry.

Who saya they were Travellers, the one convicted last week was from Leigh.

Originally Posted by Alikado

Who saya they were Travellers, the one convicted last week was from Leigh.

It says so in the article and police statement.

One hope's nobody is blaming
the police here . If you are , then you
must get out more and see what life
is in reality.

It begs the question, why would a TRAVELLER, accused of several serious crimes, be given bail. Surely the clue is in the word TRAVELLER, i.e. someone who TRAVELS.

Originally Posted by dav

So you just give up? ... as seems to be happening with so very many incidents of real crime (as opposed to so called "hate crime" and other forms of name calling which the plods are using so many resources to "police"). Perhaps Lancs Constabulary needs to buy those water cannon that the dipstick Labour mayor of London recently sold at a bargain rate.

The water cannon were sold off because their use is illegal in the UK, which clearly the mayor of London at the time of purchase was too damn stupid to know, Boris wasted more money on ego and vanity than just about anyone else anywhere.