A CAMPAIGN to kick thieves out of Redcar town centre has been hailed as a great success by police.

At the beginning of February, a 30-strong team of officers drawn from a variety of squads got together to launch Operation Forcefield, a two-week campaign to rid the town centre of shoplifters.

Detective Inspector Gordon Lang, who led the operation, said many of the thieves were stealing to finance their drugs habits.

But he said the operation had produced some excellent results - with 46 arrests, 17 shoplifters caught in the act, £500 worth of stolen goods recovered and seven people served with orders banning them from going into the town centre.

"It has been a resounding success," said Det Insp Lang. "We will be repeating a similar type of exercise in the future and we have sent out a message that there will be no let up for their criminal activities.

"If they stretch to shoplifting then we will pursue them."