Police net £60,000 stolen goods

Police on Teesside have said they will continue to target people who receive stolen goods after a £60,000 haul in the first weeks of a new operation.

Operation Penrith - which targets organised receivers of stolen property - began on 19 May.

On the first day, a £20,000 haul of car stereo's, mobile phone SIM cards and a security video system were seized along with a large quantity of the drug Ecstasy.

Six people have so far been arrested as part of the operation.

'Clear message'

The property is believed to be largely from commercial and domestic burglaries from as far afield as Northumberland.

Acting Detective Sergeant Mark Dimelow from Cleveland Police said a lot of the property was easy to identify as it had been security marked with post codes.

He said the message to criminals was clear.

"Don't do it because we are targeting you actively at the moment.

"We are proactively seeking out handlers.

"Our intention is to disrupt their activities and obviously cascade that on and it will ideally disrupt the robbers and the burglars."