CLEVELAND'S longest-serving constable is ready to call it a day after more than 32 years with the force.

Stockton crime prevention officer, Detective Constable Wallace Sayer, is retiring at the end of the month.

DC Sayer, 52, has lived in the town since he was a boy. He joined the police when he was 19, after becoming bored with his job as a shop manager.

He was the first police officer in Stockton to arrest people for burglary and theft under the new Theft Act, 1968.

He has been based mainly in Stockton and Billingham and, apart from ten years serving with CID, he has been a community police officer.

He was a crime prevention officer for five years and used his experience of working in high-crime areas on Teesside.

He said: "You learn how to communicate with people and know how people think, especially criminals.

"My skills were honed many years ago, working in the old Blue Hall and Port Clarence areas.

"I have enjoyed working with industry, schools and the crime prevention panel but the time has come to go."

DC Sayer, 52, is a clay pigeon shooting enthusiast and an advanced coach in the sport.

He has been an international referee, a member of the Olympic selection board and manager of the British team four times.

He first became interested in the sport as a young officer, when he visited a scrap yard to check the books and was invited to join the workers on a shoot.