Twelve people were arrested during a series of police operations across Essex as part of a national campaign to target foreign criminals operating in Britain.

Operation Trivium was carried out across the UK between June 22 and 27 and Essex Police officers were involved in road checks at Tilbury, Westcliff, Clacton, Thurrock, Stansted airport and on the A12 at Boreham.

Automatic number plate recognition technology (ANPR) was used to identify drivers or vehicles believed to be involved in crime or traffic offences.

Cars, vans and HGVs were intercepted by motorbike or cars and taken to check sites where officers and officials from other agencies carried out enquiries.

Two police officers from Germany joined Essex officers to assist during the stop checks at Clacton and Thurrock.

A total of 609 vehicles were stopped during the week including 67 foreign-registered vehicles.

Among those arrested were two Romanian men suspected of going equipped for theft, an Eritrean teenager who was detained as an illegal immigrant after he was seen on a lorry on the M25 and a Dutch man who was wanted for robbery.

The other arrests were: two men for possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, a man who was wanted by the Met Police for making threats to kill, a man for driving while disqualified, a 15-year-old boy for motoring offences, a man for theft, a person for drink-driving and one for drug-driving.

Numerous motoring offences were detected during the week including: 20 vehicles seized for no insurance, 40 invalid MOTs, 12 for careless driving, 162 people driving without seatbelts, 74 using a mobile phone while driving, 38 cases of speeding, 10 people driving with invalid licences and three vehicles were found using red diesel.

The Essex Police Commercial Vehicle Unit also dealt with numerous offences by van and HGV drivers.

Detective superintendent Stuart Hooper, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "This is the fourth time forces across the UK have worked together on Operation Trivium and again we have detected a variety of offences in Essex.

"Foreign nationals who use our roads while committing crime may see themselves as untouchable by the UK police .

"But cross-border policing operations such as this show that borders are no barrier to bringing offenders to justice.

”Operation Trivium has also enabled us to forge strong links with European police counterparts and we have been able share information on criminals and tactics used by offenders.

"It is important to stress that we are targeting offenders who try to use borders to cover their criminal tracks but not the communities these offenders are from.”