POLICE have announced that an initiative to tackle alcohol-fuelled crime - using lollipops - was a sweet success.

Operation Presence has been held on previous bank holiday weekends in South Worcestershire, with high-profile patrols to target any unruly and boozy behaviour.

However, this August bank holiday police ordered 10,000 lollipops to help their campaign in Evesham and Worcester, following similar initiatives elsewhere in the country which successfully kept drinkers quiet as they left nightspots. The drinkers sucked the lollipops instead of being noisy.

Police have just released figures of the operation. It produced 22 arrests - 19 of which were alcohol-related and four times as many as officers made during the Spring bank holiday.

Chief Inspector Alan Baldwin, who ran Operation Presence said, while it was not possible to say whether the lollipops specifically stopped one or more incidents, they felt it was a success and would consider doing it again.

He added: "Operation Presence was set up alongside our normal policing as traditionally there are more incidents of alcohol-related crime and disorder over the August bank holiday weekend.

"It enabled us to combine coming down hard on anyone who behaved in a disorderly manner with reassuring those law-abiding people just out having a good time."

A total of 68 officers, including dog handlers, undertook high-visibility patrols over the bank holiday period.

Working with key partners, including St John's Ambulance and Trading Standards officers, they made 46 visits to public houses and other alcohol outlets, particularly checking for sales to anyone aged under 18.

Members of the Crime and Disorder Partnership also walked around town and city centre streets with officers seeing the problems they face around alcohol-related issues.

Chief Insp Baldwin said: "Despite the number of arrests, we believe the vast majority of people took our advice to achieve a safe and happy summer evening by nominating a group driver, looking after their friends, always protecting their drink, not drinking and driving and walking away from trouble."