More than a dozen people were arrested in the Worthing district after a Sussex squad used vehicle number plate readers to catch criminals.

The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) team worked across Worthing in a bid to catch burglars, car thieves and other offenders during a five-day period from the end of July to the beginning of this month.

Working closely with the district's Neighbourhood Policing Teams, they carried out almost 330 hours of high visibility policing in just five days.

The arrests were for crimes including theft of motor vehicles, possession of drugs, GBH, arson, disqualified driving, fraud, drink-driving and giving false details.

Worthing district commander Chief Inspector Russ Whitfield said: "The ANPR system is a powerful tool in the fight against serious crime.

"This operation was aimed at arresting and disrupting those individuals having an impact on crime in our area and it was a success.

"Arrests were made, intelligence was gathered and three stolen cars were recovered. We will be using it again."

The system works by scanning number plates and matching them against information stored in databases.

It identifies vehicles of interest to police such as stolen cars or those involved in crime.

When a suspicious vehicle is recognised, it becomes the focus of police-targeted interceptions and inquiries.