Festive yobs, vandals and thieves were held at bay by a successful operation by the British Transport Police.

In the high-profile initiative carried out over Christmas, transport police arrested four people for drink-related offences as a direct result of the campaign and ensured good behaviour on late night trains.

A number of people were reported for minor offences for ticket irregularities, trespass and disorderly behaviour. Others were given on the spot warnings.

The operation ran between December 2 and 23 and has been hailed a complete success.

Sgt Dave Mumford is part of the transport police unit based at Ipswich to cover the Suffolk and north Essex area including the Colchester-Liverpool Street line.

He said: "There was not a large number of arrests but very few crimes were reported on the trains and none on the trains we were on. There was a good response from both the rail staff and passengers on the trains," he said.

Out of all the breath tests carried out at station car parks in the area, no single one proved positive.

Sgt Mumford said: "It was a very good result for us. We don't normally have an awful lot of drink-drive offences, but had none at all this year."

Up to four police at a time travelled on late-night trains, many of them full, that called at Colchester, Chelmsford, Clacton and Harwich. The operation was set up to concentrate on "public nuisance offences where the safety or perception of safety of the travelling public was affected".

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