POLICE throughout Lancashire are celebrating the success of a five-day crimebusting operation using Automatic Number Plate Recognition.

Operation Atlanta 2 was a joint venture with four other forces -- Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Chester and North Wales.

High profile check points were set up on roads across the regions from May 12 to 16, with the aim of driving criminals from the roads.

The Automatic Number Plate Recognition System (ANPR) which 'reads' car registration numbers checks them against information relating to that vehicle in a series of databases.

The system can read more than 1,000 vehicles an hour, identifying vehicles of interest, regardless of speed or how busy the road is.

A total of 100,000 vehicles were stopped. This resulted in 75 arrests for offences such as driving while disqualified, drink driving, drug offences and one incident of robbery.