Officers, police support staff, farmers and community volunteers from the Durham, Northumbria, North Yorkshire and Cumbria forces were involved.

Operation Ceramic ran overnight from Thursday to Friday and covered huge areas of countryside.

Teams monitored vehicle movement, using infra-red equipment to read number plates, and gathered information.

The aim was to target any suspicious vehicles and help reduce theft of equipment from farms.

High-profile sweep

Insp Kevin Tuck from Durham Police said: "Rural communities are among the safest places to work and live.

"They are certainly no soft touch for crime and this operation is a demonstration of our determination to show a united front against would-be thieves."

Northumberland farmer Michael Jeans welcomed the initiative.

He said: "The idea of having a high-profile sweep at least is going to keep some people's heads down.

"If we can persuade them the countryside is not ripe for rich pickings well that's a good idea.

"Because we do have a problem. I wouldn't like people to think they were about to be murdered in their beds every night but we do have a problem certainly in terms of theft."