FOLLOWING incidents in Gullane and Dunbar where victims have been targeted by fraudsters in elaborate scams, I would like to remind people of the dangers of passing out personal bank details over the phone.

On both occasions, the victims have received phone calls from persons claiming to be from a reputable High Street bank.

They have then convinced the victims to either pass account details over the phone or to input the information into a card reader, which has resulted in vast amounts of money being withdrawn from their accounts.

Banks and financial institutions will never ask for personal information in this manner. Do not hand over any financial documents and never pass any personal information over the phone.  I would advise anyone to contact Police Scotland on 101 if you have any information on these activities.

On Sunday, local officers were called to a road traffic accident on Bridge Street, Tranent. Subsequent enquiries around the driver involved in the accident resulted in a nearby house being visited and a large amount of controlled drugs with a street value of about £10,000 being recovered. A quantity of cash was also recovered.

A man and a woman were detained and arrested and appeared at Haddington Sheriff Court on drug-related charges.

The male was also charged with a number of road traffic offences.

Operation RAC continues to target offenders in the East Lothian area who are intent in breaking in to domestic properties.

As a preventative measure we continue to use local and specialist resources to disrupt activity.

The Operational Support Division of Police Scotland is now regularly in East Lothian providing extra resources and methods to prevent these crimes.

Do you have questions on legal issues, want to know about road traffic, community policing or licensing issues?

If so, I would like to direct you to our ‘ASK THE POLICE’ section on the front page of the Police Scotland website.

The database is intended to reduce the number of non-emergency calls to police forces by providing the answers direct to the public via the internet. The database contains answers to a wide selection of nationally asked questions.

The first anniversary of Police Scotland was on Tuesday.

The change within policing in Scotland resulted in the eight legacy forces forming into one police service under the overall command of Chief Constable Stephen House.

Police Scotland has 14 divisions within its structure, each led by an officer at the rank of Chief Superintendent.

East Lothian, West Lothian, Midlothian and the Scottish Borders are within the Lothians and Scottish Borders Division. The responsibility for local policing within these counties rests with the Local Area Commander at Chief Inspector rank. With more than 17,000 police officers, Police Scotland is the second largest police force in the UK.