Police and partners from three counties have joined forces to tackle offenders who use the road network to commit cross-border crime.
Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Police have pooled resources for Operation Utah – a five-day campaign which ran between Monday, April 27 and Friday, May 1, targeting criminals who travel between the three force areas.
Detectives worked together with roads policing officers for the first two days of the operation to conduct covert Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) checks on roads in the three counties. These dedicated teams targeted burglars and other individuals intent on committing crime through use of the road network.
Although Operation Utah has been run in other parts of the UK, this is the first time detectives have been directly involved.
The focus for the rest of the campaign was on the major arterial routes crossing the South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire borders.
Derbyshire officers utilised the service area at Woodall, at junction 30 of the M1, during the operation.
Operation Utah focused on burglars, drug dealers, bogus officials and those who drive without insurance.
ANPR units checked thousands of vehicles as they passed through the region with teams on hand at designated check sites to deal with any potential offenders.
During the first four days of the operation 31 people were arrested and 484 vehicles were stopped. During the checks by Derbyshire Constabulary one man was arrested after several thousand pounds of cash was found in his vehicle.
Superintendent Gary Parkin, of Operations Division, said: "This has been a very successful operation that has proved police forces and other agencies can work well together to combat travelling criminals.
At the check sites, officers and detectives from all three police forces were supported by representatives from the DVLA, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), Trading Standards, Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), Highways agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the Environment Agency.
