THREE people have been arrested during an anti-burglary operation.

West Mercia Police and West Midlands Police joined forces to target cross-border offenders, in particular burglars, travelling between Kidderminster and Stourbridge.

“Operation arrow”, which took place on Wednesday involved the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).

The technology was used to identify vehicles used by known offenders or suspected of having been used in crimes, as well as those which had no tax or insurance.

One of the vehicles seized in Kidderminster was a van with a supermarket shopping trolley in it. Three men were arrested and later charged with receiving stolen goods. One was also charged with motoring offences.

All three will appear before Kidderminster magistrates on Thursday, December 6.

During the operation which took place in Kidderminster, Norton and Hagley, the driver of another vehicle stopped was given an £80 fine for possession of cannabis.

Three vehicles were seized for having no insurance or the drivers not having the correct licenses and four drivers were reported for using their mobile phones and four were reported for motoring offences.

Sgt Brian Russell of West Mercia Police said the number plates of 5,700 vehicles travelling into Kidderminster were scanned by the ANPR equipment, which alerted officers if a vehicle was of interest.

He said: "We were very pleased with how the operation went.

"Hopefully it will send a clear message out to criminals using the main routes to travel between Kidderminster and Stourbridge that we are pro-active in stopping and checking vehicles and their occupants. More of these operations will follow."