A task force of forensic experts has hit the streets to crackdown on prolific car criminals plaguing the county.

Sussex Police have spent £340,000 on setting up a 16-strong team trained to take DNA samples from stolen, vandalised and burgled cars.

Four teams have been put on duty in the Brighton, Haywards Heath, Heathfield and Littlehampton sectors as part of a year-long trial.

The DNA will be compared to samples already taken from known criminals with the aim of tracing a small ring of villains responsible for most vehicle crime in Sussex.

Next week, a team funded by a £706,000 Home Office grant, comprising an inspector, nine officers and a crime analyst based at Hove police station will also be launched.

They will target car crime hotspots and research how best to use camera surveillance to monitor vehicle thieves across the city.

Car crime is plaguing Sussex and in particular Brighton and Hove, where the rate in some areas is more than double the national average.

Chief Inspector Chris Pascoe, of the community safety department, said: "As the amount of car crime went up, offenders became a bit complacent about how they conducted themselves.

"Offenders have got quite wise about not leaving fingerprints by using gloves or changing the way they handle things.

"Now it is much harder to prevent DNA traces being left behind and hopefully this will also increase the likelihood of offences being prevented.

"Car crime is one of the operational priorities for Sussex Police and we are taking the lead in using DNA technology."

The latest figures from the Home Office show there were 25,000 thefts of or from cars in Sussex last year until March, nearly one every 20 minutes, representing one fifth of all crime in the county.

In Brighton and Hove there were 7,400 car crimes in the same time period and a detection rate of 5.2 per cent.

In the Queen's Park ward of Brighton there were 52 car crimes per 1,000 population, compared to a national average of 20.9. In the St Peter's ward the figure was 47 and in the Regency ward it was 39.

The number of cars stolen in Sussex has increased by 89 per cent in the last 18 years.

The new teams are part of the response by Sussex Police to a Government demand for all constabularies to cut car crime by 30 per cent in five years.