THIEVES who try to steal lead from the roofs of schools, churches and houses will be caught "wet-handed" as part of a new police crackdown.

Properties in Heworth are to be supplied with a forensic fluid called Smartwater in a bid to crack down on lead theft.

Thieves have targeted schools, churches, day care centres and houses in the area for the lead on their windows, roofs and other parts of the buildings.

And with the price of lead rocketing, thieves had been rolling lead off the properties and selling it on for profit.

A small amount of lead can be sold on for as much as £250.

Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Mike Cooper for Heworth Ward said: "York is having a particular problem with lead thefts at the moment and Heworth in particular has been one of the areas targeted in recent months.

"Schools on our ward have been a victim of lead thefts, with Burnholme College being targeted twice and Tang Hall Primary School being targeted four times.

"Other properties which have been targeted include Huntington Road Day Care Centre, Heworth Methodist Church and several houses spread all over our ward."

As a result of these thefts, Heworth Safer Neighbourhood Team is providing all the schools, churches and other locations on our ward with Smartwater' order to mark the lead they have on their roofs, along with other property they wish to mark.

Smartwater is a forensic fluid containing millions of microscopic particles that make up an individual property identification code, providing the police with a liquid DNA.

The solution is painted onto items and leaves a forensic fingerprint encoded with the owner's details, which is virtually impossible to remove.

"Our Safer Neighbourhood Team is working with the schools and churches on our ward to introduce them to Smartwater and help them mark their property, in particular their lead," said PCSO Cooper.

"This will hopefully help us to detect the criminals stealing the lead, as any individual arrested in York passes through a Smartwater detection area in which an ultraviolet light illuminates any Smartwater which has transferred onto the person arrested.

"Therefore, anyone found to have the solution on them can be linked to the scene of a particular crime by the unique identification code within the liquid.

"Although all the properties which are using Smartwater will display warning labels letting criminals know that their property is protected, we believe showing exactly what we are doing will send out a message to any person involved with the lead thefts.

"Lead thefts have been prolific in our area and we want to do all we can to stop it from happening."