POLICE are continuing their work targeting unlicensed vehicle crime in the city.

Essex Police’s Colchester Community Patrol Team are continuing their work as part of a joint operation with Colchester Council.

Yesterday, officers stopped more than 50 vehicles on Queen’s Street and near the Memorial Park at the bottom of the high street over a three-hour period.

Almost 50 vehicles were given words of advice around the new restrictions which have been implemented in the high street, which means that only buses, taxis and motorbikes are permitted to travel down the high street between set hours.

As well as this, four taxi drivers were given warnings for not being in possession of their driving license and two taxi drivers were issued with warnings regarding damage to their cars which had not been reported.

Officers also took a taxi off the road for displaying an out-of-date taxi plate and arrested a man on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle.

Sergeant Robert Temme said “Operations such as these are formed following information we receive from the public, reporting concerns they have about their local community.

"This was a successful day of proactive activity and every piece of advice issued goes into the wider goal of making the roads in Colchester safer.”