CAMERAS will soon be checking up to a million cars a day on routes in and out of England's biggest county.

Cameras are being introduced and police chiefs in North Yorkshire say they will be a leading weapon in the fight against travelling criminals.

Twelve cameras will be placed at three sites on trunk roads near the county borders, linked to police operators, at a cost of £450,000.

Automatic number plate recognition cameras have already been used in the county from vehicles and have proved effective.

Last year, officers using the cameras arrested 363 people and recovered stolen property and illegal drugs worth more than £400,000.

Assistant Chief Constable Peter Bagshaw said the cameras would trace offenders and suspicious vehicles as they travelled in and out of the county. He said: "What the fixed sites will do is allow us to check somewhere in the region of a million vehicles over each 24-hour period."

About £200,000 of the money for the project has come from the Home Office, with the rest coming from police funds. The annual £60,000 running costs will be met by the force and the scheme was approved by the police authority yesterday.

The cameras will not be secret and are expected to be on major routes, such as the A1M, A64 and A19. They operate by noting the number plates of passing vehicles. Information is then checked against DVLA and police databases and police are alerted if a suspicious vehicle is spotted.

Chief Constable Della Cannings said: "We want to make sure there is an adequate network of these fixed sites on trunk roads so we can track the movements of certain people."

Assistant Chief Constable David Collins said: "It's a piece of technology that is developing constantly, and we have been very impressed with it."