POLICE have made 77 arrests in an autumn crackdown on prolific criminals in Oxford, codenamed Operation Backlash.

In the most recent phase of the operation, which ran from November 20 to December 2, police arrested 20 people in connection with offences including burglary, robbery and car crime.

One arrest was made on November 19 after a man smashed the window of a property in Bullingdon Road, Oxford in an attempt to burgle the property.

And a 25-year-old man, from Rose Hill, was arrested for burglary after a property in Spencer Crescent, Rose Hill, was broken into.

Operation Backlash has just finished its fifth phase after previous crackdowns against prolific criminals and is being described as very successful by its co-ordinating officer Det Insp Colin Paine, who heads the Oxford Priority Crime Teams of auto crime, burglary and robbery.

"We are extremely pleased with the results from the operation," he said. "Our officers have all been working extremely long hours to target prolific offenders and help keep levels of burglaries, robberies and auto crime low in the city."

A large team of plain clothed and high visibility officers patrolled Oxford city, using stop-check powers and pursuing known offenders, as well as executing warrants at suspects' addresses.

Det Sgt John Linsdell, from Oxford police said: "Our main aims were to disrupt criminal activity, arrest outstanding offenders and collect important intelligence. We want the small number of people who are responsible for a lot of Oxford's crime to be aware that we will not tolerate this.

"Throughout this operation we have collected 334 individual items of intelligence on criminals from numerous stop checks and searches, targeting known offenders.

"We want to reassure residents of Oxford that we will pursue these prolific offenders until they are bought to justice. This operation has been specifically aimed to target our priority crime areas and now that the operation has finished our policing of these areas will continue"