Police defend 'joyriding' efforts

Thieves are selling videos of stolen cars being raced

Police efforts to stop so-called joyriders in west Belfast have trebled, a senior officer has said.

A group of residents in the lower Falls area have said that their lives are being made a misery by gangs who are terrorising the community.

The police had been criticised by some residents in the area for not responding to reports of car crime.

However, Chief Inspector Peter Farrar said police remained determined to deal with the problem.

"We have trebled the amount of operations in west Belfast even last month, and we will continue to put significant resources into lower Falls purely to combat this crime," he said.

"We need help from the community, we need evidence, we are making arrests, we have remanded some of the top car criminals, but we need more evidence from the community and other statutory agencies."

Car crime

The police have said there has been a 28% reduction in car crime in west Belfast over the last three years.

In the past, police, fire and ambulance crews have been attacked during operations.

The PSNI's auto crime team said that since July 2002, it had arrested 656 people suspected of car crime, and in the last two months had recovered 116 vehicles in the lower Falls area.

On Thursday, it emerged that car thieves in the area have made a video of stolen vehicles being raced around the streets of the city.

The half-hour film shows cars racing around the west of the city and is being sold on video and DVD.

The home-made movie came to light when community workers were given copies.

It is believed the video, which was shot from a house and in the back of a stolen car, was made in December 2004.