Dozens of police officers swooped on a travellers' site in a bid to arrest fine-dodgers and recover stolen vehicles.

Around 60 officers from Basildon raided the site in Meadow Road, Runwell.

Led by Insp Dave Miller, Operation Yorker was aimed at serving more than a dozen outstanding warrants and tracing stolen vehicles.

Officers arrived at the gates in three personnel carriers, two prison buses and a number of squad cars. Mr Miller said: "I want to make it clear to the people living here that I will actively be policing the minority involved in crime."

Officers arrested one man on a warrant and items retrieved included a suspected stolen white Transit van, two quad bikes also believed to have been stolen and a yellow dumper truck.

Published Friday, April 25, 2003

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