A CRACKDOWN on metal thieves took place in Horncastle when police spent a day randomly stopping and searching vehicles.

Three road blocks were created at West Ashby, the A158 at High Toynton and near Shearman's Wath where police stopped cars to check if they were carrying stolen scrap metal.

In the last year, Lincolnshire like other areas nationally, has seen an increase in metal thefts, particularly from such things as copper piping and lead from church roofs and schools.

The number of these crimes have increased due to the soaring price of such things as copper, lead and other metals.

Operation Albay, part of the force wide Operation Brompton was a day of action against metal thefts in the Horncastle area.

Police randomly stopped vehicles which could have been on their way to scrap metal dealers in the town. The day of action followed a similar operation in the town in October.

PC Mark Schofield told the Target: "The theft of scrap metal is becoming an ever increasing problem in Lincolnshire and the rest of the country.

"We have been stopping vehicles which could appear to be carrying a load which could be on their way to getting it weighed. We have also been gaining any intelligence that we can which could help us to further tackle metal thieves."

From the day of action a 32 year-old man was arrested on suspicion of theft but was later released without charge.

Using number plate recognition technology, the police were also able to stop vehicles for other possible offences from vehicle defects to driving with no insurance and one car was seized for such an offence.

An have any information on metal thieves in the area or need to report an incident, contact Lincolnshire Police by calling 101.