POLICE detected nearly 40 crimes in one day during an operation to tackle criminals travelling through the county.

In a cross-force major operation, held on Friday at Michaelwood Services on the M5 near Dursley, police stopped around 90 vehicles travelling through Gloucestershire to search their cars and the people inside.

The operation proved a success with police fining those without tax, insurance or licences and arresting several people who were wanted for offences elsewhere in the country.

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

More than 200 staff took part in the operation, which makes extensive use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to identify vehicles associated with criminal activity.

By using ANPR officers were been able to inspect vehicles that have been identified through the police database.

Inspector Karen Ellis, one of the officers in charge of the operation, said: "Doing this operation lets the public see the police out and about doing something and making a real difference in the community."

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."

During the operation 28 people were issued with fines, cautions or a summons to court for a variety of offences including possession of cannabis and driving a vehicle with defects.

There were also seven seizures of vehicles where the drivers had no licence or no insurance and one man was issued a fine for using red diesel.

On top of this a 43-year-old man from Bristol was arrested and charged on suspicion of driving whilst disqualified and a 20-year-old man from Manchester was arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill and transferred to Greater Manchester Police.

Following the operation a police spokesman said: "The operation helped identify a number of vehicle-related and non-vehicle related offences that could have had serious implications for both those people and others.

"ANPR has proved extremely useful at detecting criminals in transit, but it is also an excellent way of gathering intelligence that can then be used to launch future operations."