A ‘Festive Fugitive’ campaign run by a North-West daily has resulted in three arrests by local police.

The multimedia campaign, run by the Liverpool Echo in conjunction with charity Crimestoppers, used Bluetooth technology to send mini wanted posters to any mobile phone within 100m of a special transmitter box in the city centre area.

Messages were sent out in areas of high footfall and were picked up by around 200,000 passers-by.

The Echo also ran pictures and biographies of 12 wanted criminals in print editions over the Christmas period.

Festive Fugitive was devised and led by the Echo’s crime reporter Ben Rossington.

Echo editor Alastair Machray said: “This is a great example of how a targeted multimedia campaign can grip the community and get instant results.

“We’ve been blown away by the feedback from the Merseyside public and we’re proud that, together, we’ve been able to bring some of the area’s most-wanted to justice.”

Similar campaigns were run by the Southampton-based Southern Daily Echo, which saw ten criminals behind bars as a result of its efforts, and Bristol’s Evening Post, which published a ‘Badvent’ calendar throughout December featuring mug shots of wanted criminals.