DRUG runners, illegal immigrants, thieves and tax dodgers were targeted in a mammoth all-day road check carried out in a Kent town.

Around 40 police officers, along with staff from a number of agencies, were at the TA Centre in Chart Road, Ashford, on Wednesday to check vehicles and drivers pulled over during Operation Scallywag.

The Immigration Service, Customs and Excise, the DVLA, Trading Standards, the Vehicle Inspectorate, the Department for Work and Pensions, Ashford council, Cubit Plus, Hackney taxi inspectors and the Environment Agency were involved in the exercise.

Altogether more than 120 vehicles were stopped and 10 people were arrested. Some were stopped for obvious offences such as not having number plates or tax discs while others were found to have tinted windows that were too dark.

Six suspected illegal immigrants were held by immigration officials and taken to Dover for questioning.

Police set up their automatic number plate recognition system, a camera and computer which alerts them to potentially suspicious vehicles, in Chart Road and Templar Way, to read the number plate of every car which drove past.

Half a dozen officers waited on foot to stop vehicles picked up on the system and any others they thought should be investigated.

The drivers were then escorted by police motorcyclists into the TA Centre, where they and their vehicles were thoroughly checked.

Officers were looking for drugs, stolen cars, stolen goods, illegal immigrants, benefit fraudsters, drivers with no licence or road tax, unroadworthy vehicles, fly-tippers and people using illegal fuel.

The motorcyclists also patrolled South Ashford and the area around junction 9 of the M20.

Operation leader Sgt Howard Chandler, from the drug liaison squad, said: “We are using drug-testing machines and dogs and we would love to find someone with drugs today.

“Or we might find someone with stolen goods in their car from a burglary.

“The message this gives to travelling criminals is: get caught in one of these and it will be a day of reckoning for you.”

The idea was developed in North Kent to combat drug-running and is part of Operation Excalibur, the county-wide crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

This is the second time it has been run in East Kent and a series of operations are planned throughout autumn.

“It is of such interest to all the other agencies and it reassures the public to know we do it,” Sgt Chandler added.