DUDLEY police have launched a crackdown on crooks by setting up decoy houses in a bid to catch them red handed.

In a new initiative called Operation Capture, officers have hooked up 10 empty properties across the borough with motion sensors, mini cameras, unique coded grease and GPS trackers.

Launching the scheme to media in a house set up specifically for the occasion in Netherton, officers explained how the properties are decorated to look like lived-in homes with the state-of-the-art equipment hidden in everyday household items and furniture.

TV’s Gadget Show presenter, Jon Bentley, was also on hand to act as the burglar, as officers demonstrated how the undetectable equipment worked throughout the property, which was closed down and relocated elsewhere in the borough immediately after the launch.

In all decoy houses all doors, windows, handles, boilers and furniture are spread with special taggent grease, which can only be detected under UV light and matched to the individual property and can still be found on clothing after numerous washes.

Any movement within the house will trigger sensors and alert police directly to their mobile phone, allowing officers to get to the scene immediately, while the offender is recorded on the high resolution cameras.

The equipment is also portable and easy to install, which means if officers see a rise in household burglaries in a particular area of the borough they can close down a decoy home and set it up in another empty property in that area within hours.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Parsons, said: “Even though we are seeing reductions in this type of crime at the moment, it’s one which leaves a massive impact on victims and with the anticipation of a typical rise during the summer months, we hope this will send out a clear message to criminals that if you take the risk, we are going to catch you.

“We are discreet and as unobtrusive as possible when we set them up, as we don’t want to make the community fearful or aware of what we are doing. During the operation of the capture house officers also go out into the neighbourhood and offer crime prevention advice to residents .”

The operation, which has funded by safe and sound, Dudley's Community Safety Partnership and Trading Standards, is believed to be the one of the first in the country where so many decoy houses are being run by police at the same time.

DCI Parsons added the operation was rolled out following success in a pilot property, where a man from Dudley was arrested following a capture house burglary and was jailed for 40 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Watch CCTV footage captured during the media launch burglary below.