The Sunday Mercury claimed a major success after two of the 10 most wanted men on Midland streets were arrested just a week after they were exposed by the Birmingham-based newspaper.

The Mercury reported exclusively on how West Midlands Police were to name and shame street robbers on the Internet. The newspaper also published photographs of the men.

As a result, the website was seen by nearly 10,000 people and officers were flooded with calls.

To cap it all, two of the men featured turned themselves in.

Deputy editor Paul Cole said: “We first contacted West Midlands Police in July suggesting the idea of an FBI-style most wanted feature.

“It was at a time when they were expanding their own campaign against violent street crime, and the initiative grew from there. We were delighted with the response to the feature.”

The Internet site is part of the police’s Operation Safer Streets. A police spokesman said they had received 20 pieces of “very solid information” relating to most of the 10 people.

“Two have been arrested and we are hopeful that more arrests will be made in the near future,” he said.

“This is a direct result of the publicity which has been received by this campaign and we’d like to thank Sunday Mercury readers for their response.”