Ballarat police have sent a zero-tolerance message to offenders in the region after a swift and coordinated multi-team response to alleged car theft resulted in the arrest of three suspects.
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A Ballarat Crime Investigation Unit spokesperson told The Courier police will use every resource at their disposal to catch offenders.
"We're taking these crimes very seriously and are taking a more strategic approach including the set up of committees around the theft of motorcars," they said.
"The plan is to send the message out there that we're going to keep going and we're going to stop crime in this area."
Police confirmed that a male from Creswick has been charged with two counts of car theft and has been bailed. No court date has yet been set.
A male and a female also remain in custody but have not been charged.
This comes after a trio of people were tracked down and subsequently arrested following a suspicious car fire in the Canadian Forest on Thursday morning.
Police and fire crews were called to the intersection of Boundary Road and Foos Lane following reports a car was on fire about 10.30am.
The car was confirmed as an outstanding stolen vehicle.
After the blaze, police received reports of another stolen vehicle, leading to the implementation of specialists resources to help locate the car, including an air wing helicopter from Melbourne.
The vehicle in question was then located. Shortly after it crashed into a truck on Forest Street in Wendouree, directly outside of Ballarat Grammar School around 1.15pm.
Speaking at the scene of the crash, Detective Sergeant Ross Andrews said he believed the occupants of the car, one female and two males, did a u-turn and smashed into an oncoming flatbed-tray truck before fleeing the scene.
WATCH DETECTIVE SERGEANT ANDREWS SPEAK HERE:
The female was captured close to the car and the two males were captured on Dare Street, one in a block of units, while the other was arrested in a nearby street.
"We've been conducting an investigation in relation to a number of car fires in and around the Ballarat area with stolen cars," Detective Sergeant Andrews said.
"We've had the air wing (helicopter) up to assist us in the investigation... when that vehicle has noticed it was following them I believe they might have done a u-turn in Forest Street and driven on the wrong side of the road for a short distance before colliding with the truck."
The CIU spokesperson praised the work of the police air wing in helping catch the suspected offenders.
"The air wing was invaluable today... I have nothing but admiration for them. They helped produce a result where we identified the vehicle and had the suspects in custody in a very short period of time.
"The air wing also helps eliminate any police chases which helps keep the public as safe as we can. Despite the fact there was a crash, that came from the suspect's own poor driving."
Police used have also recently employed a number of specialised strategies in pursuit of suspects, tactics that would be would be crucial in a crackdown on illegal behaviour.
"We're starting to push harder on getting more specialist resources... once we started to get a feel that there was a stolen car on the road today that's what we did.
"It's crucial. We want to get these cars before there's an opportunity for them to be burnt out. That involves using the proper resources to track them down before it gets to that stage."
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