A CRACKDOWN on festive crime is proving a success.

Figures from the fourth week of Northumbria Police's Freeze Out campaign show that offences have gone down by a third, for the second week in succession.

In seven days, there were 814 offences across the force area, including thefts, assaults and burglaries, compared to 1,256 in the same period last year - a fall of 442 crimes.

In Sunderland, an operation targeting city centre disorder resulted in ten arrests, while an operation targeting car crime led to four arrests.

Two arrests were made during an anti-social behaviour operation.

The biggest success was in theft from people, which fell by 60 per cent in the Sunderland area.

Assistant Chief Constable David Warcup said: "For the second week running, crime has fallen by more than a third in Northumbria.

"Not only is this extremely reassuring to people living, working and visiting the area, but also shows this is not the place to come to if you intend to commit crime.

"It is not only the weather which is bringing an icy chill to the criminal this Christmas, but Northumbria Police's Freeze Out campaign."

An alcohol banning order has been introduced in Gateshead town centre and an operation to enforce it resulted in eight arrests.

Burglaries are down by almost half and theft from cars is down by 65 per cent.

On South Tyneside, eight arrests were made for drugs offences, and an operation on the Metro system resulted in 48 people being stopped. Each was given a summons or an advice letter.

In Newcastle, drugs operations resulted in five arrests for supplying Class A drugs, and police recovered drugs, including cocaine and heroin, and £1,440.

There were two further arrests for possession of cannabis and one arrest for receiving stolen goods.