POLICE have mounted a huge operation across Avon and Somerset in a bid to crack down on bogus callers.

Officers pulled over hundreds of vehicles as part of an intelligence gathering operation as they go after rogue traders targeting homes in the force area.

Crime reduction tips have been handed out to residents to give them the confidence to turn away traders who often prey on the vulnerable.

The aim of the operation was to clamp down on incidents where residents have been conned into having work done on their homes or gardens.

The rip-off merchants then charge vastly inflated prices for sub-standard work that was not even required in the first place.

In the Somerset West patch - which includes the Taunton area, Minehead and Bridgwater - more than 250 people were warned to be on their guard against the conmen.

Scores of magnifying glasses were given out to people so they can examine callers' identification cards more carefully.

In Taunton, an Automatic Number Plate Recognition operation saw a large number of vehicle stop checks, while two arrests were made and a vehicle was seized.

Elsewhere in the force area, police seized financial information from a traveller site as part of a potential deception incident; two people were identified as working illegally during an investigation with Trading Standards; 23 drivers were dealt with for various motoring offences; and intelligence of "significant interest" to other forces was gathered in another operation.