Eight people arrested, 13 summoned to court and eight vehicles seized in one day during crackdown on traffic offences in Lancashire

Lancashire Police have launched ‘Operation Vanquish’ to reduce the number of road fatalities within the North-West.

The operation will see a fortnight of surge activity take place, aimed at tackling those who use the county’s roads for criminality.

On Friday (October 21) officers operated a number of checkpoints across Blackpool and carried out targeted stops where information suggested a motorist may be regularly drink or drug-driving.

Eight people were arrested and 13 were summoned to court over the course of the day across the county.

Eight vehicles were also seized for having no insurance while ten people were found to have been drink or drug-driving.

Sgt Steven Burton, of the Lancashire Police TacOps team, said: “Operation Vanquish has been running to clamp down on road-related crime all over the county, but on certain days we have also been focusing more resources on specific areas.

“On Friday we were in Blackpool and to all the people who were stopped and found to be law-abiding, we say a huge thank you. We also want to say how much we appreciated some members of the public coming over to say hello to our officers and to ask us about the operation.

“Of course this kind of activity is part and parcel of our daily business but we hope the fortnight of Vanquish action sends a message about how seriously we take this kind of criminality. We will not stand for people putting others’ lives at risk on the roads.”

You can report any information you have about road-related crime on 101 or online at doitonline.lancashire.police.uk.