Stolen property worth more than £160,000 has been seized by North Yorkshire police during a three-month crackdown on burglars, car thieves and drug dealers, it was announced today.

A press conference at York's Fulford Road police station heard that more than 1,000 crimes were solved around the county during Operation Starling, and more than 70 in Selby alone.

Police chiefs have hailed the result as a major success against the county's criminals and have warned that more seizures and arrests will follow.

Detective Superintendent Peter McKay said that officers using high quality intelligence had made concerted efforts against burglars, drug dealers and car thieves during the last three months.

He said: "We have cleared up more than a 1,000 crimes and recovered property worth around £162,000.

"I hope Operation Starling sends a strong message not only to offenders that we are determined to stamp out crime, but also send a strong message to the victims of crime."

In Selby, stolen goods worth nearly £70,000 were seized.

A total of 75 crimes were cleared up, including 13 burglaries, 13 car crimes, 19 drugs offences, ten crimes of deception and one robbery.

Det Sup McKay said he himself had been a victim of burglary and auto crime and knew the devastating impact it could have.

"This means less victims of crime and less offenders on the streets," he said.

"And we have gained a tremendous amount of intelligence and more arrests will follow".

Operation Starling was a force-wide campaign running through November, December and January to tackle "acquisitional" crime such as theft, burglary, auto crime and shoplifting.

The operation also concentrated on the drugs problem as many property crimes are committed by users needing to feed their habit.

In North Yorkshire police's central area which covers York, Selby and Tadcaster and surrounding areas a total of 449 crimes were detected and property worth more than £125,000 recovered.

Updated: 17:23 Monday, February 12, 2001