Police have mounted a series of dawn raids on homes across York following the launch of a hard-hitting crime campaign by the Evening Press.

The paper's crime reporter Tony Tierney and photographer Mike Tipping accompanied 15 officers, backed by police dogs, as they smashed their way into properties around York and carried off an Aladdin's cave of stolen property and drugs.

The raids took place only weeks after the Evening Press launched its Operation Ratcatcher campaign, and were a direct result of tip-offs from readers who had read about the paper's initiative encouraging people to 'rat' on criminals.

One raid, close to the Evening Press headquarters, targeted the home of a suspected drug dealer thought to be one of the main "fences" for city centre shoplifters.

Operation Ratcatcher is a joint initiative between the Evening Press, North Yorkshire police and Safer York Partnership.

Chief Inspector Kevin Doyle said: "Less than a month ago the Operation Ratcatcher campaign was launched and I am happy to see that information has come in from the public allowing positive police action to be taken against criminals operating in York.

"We are 100 burglaries down on this time last year and this is a time of year when crime normally rockets. Operation Ratcatcher is definitely working."

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