A POLICE operation to stop York's criminals spreading misery before Christmas has seen more undercover officers descending on the city centre.

Elusive offenders have been brought to book, while officers have also caught new culprits in the act.

Operation Circle was launched earlier this month, as plain-clothes police secretly mingled with festive shopping crowds in an attempt to take some of York's most wanted criminals off the streets.

Sergeant Martin Metcalfe said: "We ran the operation on Thursday with eight plain-clothes officers in the city centre who made ten arrests. They were mainly on warrant - people who haven't paid fines or attended court - and a couple of shoplifters."

Officers were out again yesterday, when seven arrests were made in the first two hours.

Criminals were warned that the operation will be running this weekend as well.

Sgt Metcalfe said: "I am very pleased with how it's gone. The store detectives are helping us out quite a lot. We will definitely repeat this, but I can't say when."

Cells at York Police station were completely full at the end of the first weekend of Operation Circle, when 33 arrests were made for offences including burglary, shoplifting, possession of drugs, aggressive begging and failing to attend court or pay fines.

The aim of the operation was to catch people already wanted by local police as they moved in shopping crowds, and to catch those actually carrying out offences in the city centre.

Known trouble hotspots around York have been targeted, including Marygate car park for drug dealing, and public toilets at Bootham Bar, Coppergate, Tanner Row and Parliament Street for drug misuse.

Updated: 09:25 Saturday, December 18, 2004