EIGHTY people have been arrested in the first month of Operation Maple, Gwent Police's war on car crime, which began on August 1.

The operation has been running alongside the Argus' own campaign, Car Safe, to cut the number of car thefts and thefts from vehicles. The first 30 arrests took place in the Maindee, Newport - Gwent's worst-hit area.

Since then, the operation has moved to B Division, which covers Torfaen and Monmouthshire, and a further 50 arrests have been made. Areas targeted there have included Pontypool town centre, New Inn, Griffithstown, Sebastopol, Trevethin, Blaenavon, Cwmbran and Pontnewydd.

Inspector Chris Norman, who is heading the operation, said: "We are pleased at the successes of Operation Maple so far in B Division and throughout the whole force area.

"Further operations are planned in B Division over the coming weeks and we anticipate more arrests of persistent vehicle offenders, and a subsequent reduction in car crime throughout Gwent."

Deputy Chief Inspector Bryan Davies said before the operation's launch he was not prepared to let the car crime situation get any worse. Between April 1, 2002, and March 31, 2003, theft of vehicles had increased by 16.7 per cent.

The first three months of this financial year saw an additional increase of 19.4 per cent.

And for thefts from cars the picture was even worse.

Last year there was a 19.9 per cent increase in that type of crime and for the first three months of this year there was a continued increase of 25.9 per cent.

Mr Davies said: "We are not prepared to wait to be overtaken by worrying developments such as that. We need to do something about it now."

Gwent Police have also teamed up with Crimestoppers to launch a TV message to be screened from today about Operation Maple.