NEARLY 130 cars were stopped in a massive Bedfordshire police operation involving more than 200 officers.
Operation Utah, which took place last Wednesday between Toddington Services and Dallow Road, in Luton, saw 129 cars stopped leading to ten arrests being made.
The police used Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to detect cars using the county’s roads to commit crime.
The arrests were for offences including money laundering, after £7,000 in cash was discovered in a glove box, drug related offences, a drunk driver and possession of false documents.
It also involved a high value shop theft which had occurred in Derbyshire the same morning along with property recovered and one person wanted on warrant for non-payment of a fine.
In addition, two people were given on the spot fines of £500 for having illegal fuel (red diesel) in their vehicles and 27 people were reported for having no insurance or licence. Two suspected stolen vehicles were also seized.
Superintendent Andy Martin said: “This is not about targeting the law abiding motorist but stopping those who use the roads to commit crime.
“Burglars, drug dealers and many other types of criminals have cars or access to vehicles that transport them around the country to their next crime.
“By using intelligence and technology combined we are able to stop them in their tracks.”
An ANPR camera can read a number plate every second on vehicles at speeds up to 100mph regardless of weather and lighting conditions.
It scans vehicle registrations and checks them against information stored on a variety of databases.