BOY racers heading for Thurrock to rev around the streets, were met with a ring of steel.

Police were out in force to stop the reckless cruisers causing misery for businesses and residents.

In recent years cruisers, who have been banned from Basildon and pushed out of Southend, have headed for the Thurrock area.

They tear up and down the A126 and park to perform stunts in Oliver Road, the Tesco at Cygnet View, and Sainsbury’s in Burghley Road, Chafford Hundred.

Their behaviour has prompted floods of complaints to police about the noise, the mess left behind and other motorists alarmed by their reckless driving.

On Saturday night it was a different story when police descended on the boy racers’ haunts.

The crackdown formed part of a month-long blitz on cruisers, codenamed Operation Wagtail.

Officers set up a roadblock starting at the A126 slip road for Lakeside.

From 10pm onwards every motorist entering the A126 was stopped and questioned as to where they were going.

Most motorists were allowed to continue their journey, but boy racers in souped-up cars were promptly issued with a dispersal notice and sent home.

The notice gives police the power to ban cruisers from the area with immediate effect for a 12-hour period.

Hordes of cruisers were sent away, but before they went, police searched their cars for mechanical defects, such as broken lights or bald tyres, as well as for drugs.

Two cars, both containing young men were subjected to a search by a police drugs dog after a strong smell of cannabis wafted out from both vehicles.

No arrests were made, but both cars were sent away from the area.

PC Richard Smears, neighbourhood specialist officer for South West Thurrock, said: “The cruisers definitely seem to be getting the message.

“There is noticeably a lot less traffic coming into the area on Saturday nights as a result of this operation.”

Over the past four weeks of Operation Wagtail police have arrested three people for various offences, carried out 43 vehicle searches, issued 66 fixed penalty notices for offences ranging from not wearing a seat belt to light defects, seized 12 cars and banned hundreds of cruisers from Thurrock for 12 hours.