A STAGGERING £320,000-worth of property and drugs were seized from criminals by police piloting a state-of-the-art scanning device in North Yorkshire,

the Evening Press can reveal.

And 258 motorists were arrested for offences including robbery, burglary and

car crime thanks to the hi-tech automatic number plate recognition (ANPR)

system.

North Yorkshire Police took part in the year-long trial, and its results were

immediately hailed as an "overwhelming success" by Home Secretary David

Blunkett.

ANPR instantly scans vehicle number plates and matches them against

information stored on police databases to identify stolen vehicles or those

involved in crime.

Suspicious vehicles are stopped by police officers and their drivers

questioned.

Detective Inspector Ian Wills, who heads North Yorkshire's ANPR trial,

said: "We now know even more about who travels where, when and with whom, and what routes they like. It all adds to the intelligence picture that enables us to drive back the travelling criminals. "Before ANPR, night-time checks would necessarily involve stopping quite a number of entirely innocent drivers.

"Now we can get much better target the people we want to know about, and so

minimise public inconvenience."

Newly-published Home Office figures revealed 4,498 cars, lorries, motorcycles and vans were halted on North Yorkshire's roads using ANPR devices.

Officers issued 1,038 fixed penalty notices for offences including driving without insurance or car tax. They searched 97 vehicles and 166 people.

Police seized 26 stolen cars with a total value of £265,775, discovered 14

cachets of drugs with a value of £33,628 and recovered other property worth

£19,900 - totalling £319,303.

Det Insp Wills said ANPR was particularly effective in tackling criminals who committed offences in North Yorkshire then crossed the border into neighbouring counties to avoid capture.

He said: "Some criminals in surrounding counties have a naive belief they

can stroll into North Yorkshire and help themselves. Some of them have had a rude awakening."

Nationally, more than people 13,000 people were collared by ANPR teams - an

arrest rate nine times higher than the national average. And £8 million-worth of drugs and property were seized during the 12-month

pilot.

Announcing £15 million funding to roll-out ANPR nationally, Mr Blunkett

said: "This is a powerful tool, unique in its ability to impact on crime at

every level, from local volume crime through cross-border and organised

crime and counter terrorism. It brings enormous benefits to the police and to society. Its impact goes far beyond the roads - thousands of arrests were made for theft, burglary and drugs offences.

"ANPR is a shining example of how targeted police operations deliver positive results."

The £15 million cash boost will also create a control centre, so forces can

exchange ANPR-read data from across the UK to help tackle terrorism and

organised crime.

Updated: 10:01 Wednesday, November 03, 2004