BRIERLEY Hill police have sniffed out and seized 54 cars from the streets this year - thanks, they say, to following their 'copper's nose'.

It was this important piece of police kit that resulted in a car being seized and driver arrested by Merry Hill shopping centre last week.

Officers from Team Response Team C had followed the black Mercedes to a car park at the centre and after vehicle and licence checks the driver was arrested on suspicion of motoring offences, the car was seized under the Road Traffic Act and the 21-year-old motorist was subsequently charged.

Officers put the arrest down to their 'copper's nose' telling them something wasn’t quite right when they spotted the car on the afternoon of June 9.

PC Jamie Follows, from Response Team C - based at Brierley Hill Police Station, said: “I’d describe a ‘Copper’s Nose’ as a pure instinct that you gain with experience which helps you spot suspicious behaviour.

“It might be the way someone acts when they see us or someone’s driving style – your spider senses tell you something’s amiss and there have been countless times when it’s proved spot on and we’ve arrested criminals.”

The Response Team's primary role is responding to 999 calls for help but when they’re not committed to emergency incidents they patrol the patch looking for suspicious activity and helping the public - and this year C Team has seized 54 vehicles and counting.

They are one of five units working out of Brierley Hill - one of 10 response bases across the force which have collectively seized hundreds of illegal vehicles this year.

PC Follows said: “Many of the cars we’ve seized were found to be running on cloned or false plates, some are stolen and others being driven by banned drivers.

“If we have suspicions about a vehicle while we’re on patrol we can run checks through our mobile devices which are linked to national and WMP police systems. We can get information through in a matter of seconds.

“We recently stopped a cloned recovery truck which was seen driving around and suspected of being involved in crime; we found the driver was disqualified.

“One driver we stopped tried providing false details as he didn’t have a licence. It’s a futile exercise as we have mobile fingerprint kits that would have confirmed his identity – but we didn’t need it as his passenger accidentally called him by his real name during the stop.

“Owners have to prove they have a licence and insurance before they can get their vehicles back…and if they don’t the car can be destroyed or sold.”