Thieves responsible for hundreds of forecourt fuel thefts every year are facing a police crackdown, it was announced yesterday.

Police and filling station owners are joining forces against petrol thieves - whom officers suspect of being the same people responsible for burglary and car theft.

At just one garage, there were 49 thefts in 1999, and 70 last year. There are 20 petrol stattions across the Langbaurgh area, which indicates the scale of the problem in Redcar and Cleveland.

Cleveland Police said criminals need their cars to move about and by stopping them from stealing petrol they cannot go and commit crimes such as burglary and drug dealing.

PC Mark Pitt, who is helping to coordinate the campaign, said: "We have real support from a number of garages, many have improved their CCTV and installed other methods of crime reduction.

"People are almost making a business out of it because they are using the fuel to travel to North Yorkshire and about the former county of Cleveland."

He said an effective forecourt-watch network had been developed to circulate crime details quickly to police and to other garage operators.

A database detailing known offenders and vehicles will be used to pinpoint the most likely garages to be hit by thieves at any particular time.

"There is a real link between fuel theft and other crimes such as the theft of motor vehicles and burglary.

"If we can disrupt their activities here, it will have a profound knock-on effect elsewhere in the criminal arena."

PC Pitt said many of the cars used by criminals were unregistered, untaxed and uninsured, which meant they could also be prosecuted for those offences. Criminals taken to court face punishments including points on a licence, driving bans and even jail sentences of up to six months.

He said: "By sending out this message, it may make one or two criminals change their habits, but by doing so they will only stand out more - making them easier to catch."