TWENTY-ONE people have been arrested and car crime in Redditch has been slashed by almost 50 per cent in just four weeks following a police operation.

Last month, the Advertiser reported a car was either stolen or broken into almost every day in the town centre and surrounding areas alone.

Operation Excalibur was launched and police asked for help to identify a group of youngsters they believed were responsible for the dramatic increase in vehicle crime.

For the last few weeks, a dedicated team of officers has targeted specific hotspots. Undercover officers and a specialist road traffic unit were also brought in.

In September, there were 117 incidents of car crime compared to 63 in November.

Sgt Stuart Crebbin said: "The operation began at the beginning of November and has been running for six weeks. We are pleased to see a reduction which has occurred as a result of extra patrols in areas where we know vehicle crime occurs.

"During that time, we arrested 21 people, of which seven were prolific offenders. These are groups of people who commit half of all crime committed in Redditch.

''Almost 30 per cent of all vehicle crimes reported have been detected, which is an increase of 12 per cent compared with the previous month.

"As a result of the increased patrols within the town centre, arrests have been made for other offences which came to our attention."

Sgt Crebbin said they were also now looking at medium-term plans to target certain areas of the town as a whole rather than just the centre and surrounding areas.

He also urged people to ensure they took preventative measures to make cars less vulnerable to thieves, such as using steering locks.

Sgt Crebbin added: "While carrying out this operation, there have been a small number of false reports about cars being stolen.

''Every offence is investigated and it will be found out if a false report has been made."