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by Martin Jefferies

Dozens of drivers were targeted in a multi-agency crackdown on
vehicle offences and other illegal activities in Cliftonville.

Vehicles were diverted from Northdown Road into the Harold Road
car park on Friday for a series of checks by Kent Police
and the vehicle enforcement agency VOSA, as well as the UK
Border Agency (UKBA) and the Department for Work and Pensions
(DWP).

Kent Police Sgt Lara Connor, whose Margate-based neighbourhood
task team led the crackdown, codenamed Operation Invincible, said:
"We've tackled a range of offences, from overweight vehicles to
possession of Class A drugs."

Sgt Connor said that other offences included untaxed vehicles
and cars being driven without insurance, with bald tyres or with
illegal number plates.

Officials from UKBA joined the operation in an effort to
identify illegal immigrants, while DWP staff checked that the
occupants of vehicles searched were not working and wrongly
claiming benefits.

Drivers were escorted to the temporary checkpoint after
triggering automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras hidden
on Northdown Road, or after alerting a team of police
motorcyclists.

Sgt Connor described Operation Invincible as the largest of its
kind ever seen in Cliftonville and said similar searches were
likely to occur in the future.