SCORES of people have been arrested under a police initiative encouraging people to inform on criminals in their area.

More than 100 calls have been made to the North Yorkshire force under its operation code-named Ratcatcher.

The information has led to 88 people being charged, stolen property worth £1,700 recovered and drugs with a street value of more than £10,000 confiscated.

In an effort to build further on the success, more people are now being asked to "rat on the rats".

Ratcatcher was launched at the end of last year to support the force-wide Operation Delivery blitz against crime, which has led to 4,000 arrests.

"The force has had great success in carrying out intelligence-led, proactive operations targeting criminals under the auspices of Operation Delivery, but we are constantly in need of information," said Assistant Chief Constable David Collins

"The whole point of Operation Ratcatcher is to enable local people to tell their local police about the local criminals who are blighting their lives, using the anonymity of the Crimestoppers scheme.

"I have no problem about referring to these criminals as rats - they plague our communities and make life extremely unpleasant for their victims.

"They need catching and putting before the courts."

"I want to urge anyone with relevant information about the activities of these people to pass it on to us. As soon as we have enough evidence to justify police action, we will take it."

Ratcatcher uses the dedicated Crimestoppers number 0800 555111 so that calls are free and callers do not have to leave a name or address but can still qualify for a cash reward.

"The scheme got off to an excellent start," said Crimestoppers liaison officer Hugh Carruthers.

"We received 20 calls in the first two weeks and since then there has been a steady flow of information, but we would like to receive a lot more.

"The information we glean is always evaluated and passed in to the force intelligence systems so that appropriate action can be taken.