Police watch and wait for a thief to break into the car

A specially-equipped car adapted with an immobiliser, which has been successfully trialled in the St Neots area, will now move around the county to be used as bait.

Police said the vehicle looks like thousands of others - but if anyone tries to steal or tamper with it they will be arrested by officers who are keeping the car under surveillance.

The man behind the St Neots scheme, Pc Matt Bill, said: "This is not a new idea but we expect it to be very successful.

"In the last two months we have been able to reduce the number of stolen cars in the sector by 75%."

Superintendent Paul Phillipson added: "The bad news for criminals is that the car could now start turning up just about anywhere in the county from now on.

"There is certainly every possibility that we will start putting more cars like this one on our streets.

"Our message to criminals is that we will not tolerate their actions and will use every method possible to tackle them."