“IT’S a bit like fishing. You sit there and see what you catch,” the undercover policeman told me – and I had to agree, writes Megan French.

That’s exactly what it was like We were sitting in an unmarked police car, discreetly parked at the roadside, waiting for something to happen.

A police motorcyclist was parked at the junction along the road – all part of a big team involved in the operation. The main objective was to target metal thieves, with the prospect of taking a few dangerous, unlicensed and untaxed vehicles off the road an added bonus.

Friday’s operation, based at the Boreham service area, just outside Chelmsford, was a multi-agency affair.

Police from the dedicated A12 police patrol unit and officials from Braintree Council, the Environment Agency and the Vehicles and Operator Services Agency were also involved. Nearly 200 drivers were pulled over and their details and vehicles checked.

For our part, we sat there, on the lookout for suspicious vehicles, particularly any loaded with scrap metal.

Automatic number plate recognition equipment by the roadside alerted officers to any vehicle which was untaxed, uninsured, or not registered with the DVLA – often a giveaway the driver is up to no good.

Each time the system flagged up a vehicle as suspicious, our police car or the motorbike would set off to pull it over, in some cases escorting it back to Boreham services for further checks by the other agencies.

A BMW 4x4 showed up on the ANPR system as having no insurance or tax.

The driver, a car dealer who said he was on his way to sell the vehicle, landed a ticket for a £60 fine and was ordered to produce his insurance documents at a police station within seven days. Overall, the operation resulted in eight vehicles being seized and 30 fixed penalty notices being issued.

A 30-year-old man from Braintree was arrested on suspicion of going equipped to steal vehicles, and a 48-year-old man from Maldon was arrested on suspicion of stealing metal.

Ch Insp Nick Lee, district commander for Braintree district, stressed the prime purpose of Friday’s operation was not to catch out motorists, but to target metal thieves.

He explained the theft of scrap and of catalytic converters, which contain the precious metals platinum, palladium and rhodium, from car exhaust systems was a big problem in the area.

He added: “We have seen people diversifying into metal theft when they need money.

“We have more catalytic converter thefts in this area than anywhere else in Essex.”

Police are raising awareness among people who might be targeted, going after suspected thieves on the basis of information from the public and using operations such as Friday’s to make life harder for the thieves.