A day of action targeting criminals on the roads in a Suffolk town saw numerous vehicles stopped by police.

Suffolk Police carried out a special operation in Lowestoft to disrupt criminal activity.

A total of 80 vehicles were stopped on Thursday, March 17 – with just four of the vehicles leaving the site clear of any action.

The multi-agency day of action saw vehicles that were suspected of criminality brought back to the Clifton Road car park in south Lowestoft, where checks were carried out for potential offences.

With the police operation led by the Roads & Armed Policing Team, cars, motorbikes and other vehicles were all stopped.

During the day vehicles were pulled over for a range of offences including no driving licence, careless driving, not having insurance, no MOT, defective brake lights, defective tyres, defective exhaust, tinted windows, defective mirrors, overweight vehicles and driving while not wearing a seatbelt.

A total of 87 Traffic Offence Reports (TORs) were issued for "a range of offences", while two vehicles were taken off the road by police for not having any insurance.

Sgt Julian Ditcham, from the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Roads and Armed Policing Team (RAPT), said: "It was a busy day of action in Lowestoft targeting criminals on Suffolk's roads.

"We had 80 vehicles to the check site and out of those only four left the site clear of offences."

Three motorists were also arrested on suspicion of drug driving, and Sgt Ditcham said: "They all provided a sample for analysis and we await these results."

The police-led multi-agency operation ran between 8am and 3.30pm, and among the partner agencies were the DVLA, DVSA, Immigration Enforcement, the Environment Agency and taxi licensing.

In addition, the Suffolk Safety Camera Partnership recorded 62 speed offences at eight specific sites in the Lowestoft area.

With the aim of the operation to disrupt criminal activity, to catch those committing driving offences, and to remove unsafe vehicles from the road as vehicle examinations were carried out, Sgt Ditcham said: "The results indicate offences are still being committed.

"With fatal road traffic collisions on the increase across our areas these proactive days of action will continue across Suffolk."