Police from five forces were involved in an operation covering 4,000 square miles of Northern England last week.

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On Tuesday evening, officers from the police forces of Cleveland, Cumbria, Durham, North Yorkshire and Northumberland were on the hunt for a vehicle that fled during a stop-check being carried out in Teesside. The vehicle's occupants left behind a number of empty plastic drums that officers suspected were to be used in fuel theft.  

The synchronised stop-check and subsequent operation to track the car were the largest carried out to date under Durham Constabulary's Farm Watch scheme, involving upwards of 90 officers and almost 150 volunteers. The vehicle which absconded was tracked to an address in County Durham, where police conducted a search. Although no arrests were made, police sources said "inquiries are ongoing" to trace the suspects who fled in Teesside.

A spokesperson for Durham Constabulary said, "This incident alone proved the value of the police and local volunteers working together on this type of operation... tackling both local and cross border crime. As the target vehicle left the Teesdale area volunteers were able to report its position via the Farm Watch radio system."

Durham Police said the five forces would continue to co-ordinate stop-checks in the future, in an effort to prevent rural crime and deter would-be criminals. Police in Lancashire announced last year that, in response to an increase in livestock theft, the force had upped the number of stop-checks being conducted on livestock transporters.

Police forces advise farmers and those living in remote locations to sign up to their local Farm Watch scheme, which focuses on intelligence gathering and instant information sharing to combat rural crime.