A POLICE officer who patrols the rural areas of Anglesey and Gwynedd has been honoured with a top UK policing and environmental award.

Constable Dewi Evans, a member of North Wales Police’s Rural Crime Team, received the WWF UK National Enforcers Award at the UK Wildlife Conference in Yorkshire in testament to his effort to tackle wildlife crime.

The award is sponsored by the WWF, the leading worldwide conservation group, and is chosen by professionals who work in wildlife investigation and prevention throughout the UK, including the police, UK Border Agency, RSPCA and National wildlife Crime Unit.

PC Evans first joined the Welsh force in 2007 as a probationer constable and, after initial spells in Holyhead and Porthmadog, he was appointed a member of the Rural Crime Team in 2013 to investigate wildlife offences.

But he is also the scriptwriter and main character of the popular S4C children’s program, ‘Dewi a’r Ditectifs Gwyllt’, translated Dewi and the Wildlife Detectives. The show reconstructs wildlife offences and sees Dewi accompanied by four junior detectives solving various challenging investigations, with local people and other team members taking cameo roles. The next series of the show, which will be aired in the New Year, sees Dewi and his able team tackle badger offences, poaching and even the disturbance of dolphins by jet skis off the coast of north Wales.

The real-life PC Evans said: “I am so honoured to receive this national recognition for my rural work and of course I also accept it on behalf of the excellent rural team that I work with on a daily basis.

"Wildlife crime investigation is so different to any other police investigation and you often have to think outside the box to achieve success, but I am passionate about my job and I look forward to going to work."

Rob Taylor, manager of the North Wales Police and Dyfed Powys Police Rural Crime Teams, said: “ I am so pleased that Dewi’s professionalism and hard work has been recognised in such a way. He is a key member of a small team of officers throughout Wales who work tirelessly to make a real difference in protecting our wildlife and habitats.

"He joined the police with the goal of becoming a successful wildlife officer and I’m sure this has given him the seal of approval that he made the right choice."