POLICE have been out in force today in a major operation designed to tackle criminals travelling through the county.

Gloucestershire police have teamed up with their counterparts from Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Gwent, South Wales and Wiltshire Constabularies to carry out Operation Utah.

The operation is being run from Michaelwood Services, on the M5 near Dursley, both north and southbound.

The partnership means there are more than 200 staff taking part in the operation, which makes extensive use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to identify vehicles associated with criminal activity and support vehicle checks.

By using ANPR, which has proved an extremely effective tool against all kinds of crime, officers have been able to inspect vehicles that have been identified through the police database.

So far today on the northbound services alone 16 people have been either fined or arrested for various offences.

One man was cautioned for possessing cannabis, one prohibition order was given for a car unsafe for the road and four cars were seized because either they had no insurance or the driver had no licence.

The police found one vehicle with red diesel, one owner was given a fine because their car wasn’t MOT’d and two lorries were found to be dangerously overweight. A further two cars had no tax and two motorists were issued forms for having defects on their cars.

Tony Hind was pulled over during the operation but was not arrested for any offence. He said: "I think the operation is a good idea, it’s good to see the police out doing something.

"It didn’t bother me being pulled over, If it catches people who don’t pay for tax and insurance then it will be a good thing."