CAR crime at Teesside Airport has forced police to hold top-level talks with management.

Six cars were stolen from the airport and others broken into during a mini-crime wave which hit the airport area this autumn.

PC Boyd Rowe told Monday's meeting of Middleton St George Parish Council that homes, shops and businesses had been targeted and bikes, a lawnmower, drill and golf clubs stolen. A window at the Devonport Hotel was forced and the one-armed bandit rifled.

On one night, October 6, there was a spate of thefts from village cars including CDs, a laptop, radios and a briefcase. Extra police were drafted in to patrol the area in order to nip the problem in the bud.

PC Rowe said the police's Operation Hawkeye involved patrolling vehicles and alerting owners to the risk of leaving valuables on display.

"A laptop left in a car is just ludicrous. It is the kind of easy pickings that make thieves come back."

In the last survey, 163 warnings were issued to car owners in the area, 74 of those at the airport.

Chairman, Coun Bill Oliver, said: "Your report makes grim reading."

PC Rowe said: "Teesside Airport accounts for a lot of crime in the area. Our boss is in talks with the head of security with a view to reducing the crime level out there.

"We can only hope the management will honour their promises regarding the upgrading of their own security when they carry out improvements at the airport," said Coun Brian Jones.

John Waiting, the airport's business services manager, said a security upgrade would follow the introduction of a new access road to its terminal, due for completion by late spring or early summer 2004.

"There will be a total review of car park mechanisms and security on the site. Discussions are taking place at the moment between the airport and crime prevention officers."

Under the new road scheme, the roundabout nearest to the airport would be removed and repositioned between the Oak Tree pub and the existing motor homes site.

"We have acquired farmland that goes down the west side of the airport and that will be where the new road will go.

"It will separate passenger traffic from other users, such as the care homes and fire training school, and give them a quicker and more direct route to the terminal."