North Yorkshire police officer, Inspector Rob Thorpe (right), has been commended for his part in Coast to Coast Tornado, a region-wide blitz on metal thieves that has seen the crime almost halve in the county.

The operation, in early December, involved ten police forces and resulted in 57 significant arrests linked to approximately £115,000 of seized or suspected stolen goods.

More than 200 scrap yards were visited and 3,546 vehicles were stopped and searched, with 76 vehicles seized.

Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Co-ordinator, Acting Inspector Wayne Goodwin, said: “Coast to Coast Tornado disrupted the theft, disposal, transportation and exportation of stolen metal through systematically targeting the road network, ports and scrap yards, using all available powers.”