North Wales police unusually busy

21 November 2012, 05:21 | Updated: 21 November 2012, 05:23

The last meeting of the North Wales Police Authority has heard that the force's "detective pot is close to being empty".

That was the message from Chief Constable, Mark Polin.

He was speaking at the final meeting of the police authority before a crime commissioner - as it does across England and Wales - takes over its task on Thursday, 22nd November.

Mr Polin said major incidents had involved massive resources in time and manpower - the murder of the Deeside vet Catherine Gowing and the search for her body, the Prestatyn fire tragedy which cost five lives, and a murder at Bala. 

Arrests have been made in all three murders. 

In addition, North Wales Police continues to investigate a spate of arson attacks on cars at Wrexham, after which one woman owner had collapsed and died on finding her car had been torched. 

Assistant chief constable Gareth Pritchard said there would be big costs for forensic work and police overtime.