LAW-ABIDING people everywhere will welcome the new technology trialled in Lancashire which has been so successful as a crime fighter that it is now to be employed by every police force in the country - even though critics may say it smacks of Big Brother.

In just five months, the new automatic number plate recognition system, which reads car registrations and checks them against the national police computer, has led to 276 arrests for a raft of crimes ranging from robbery to driving offences and aided the recovery of £108,560.

It's a system that makes it harder for criminals to hide and easier for them to be brought to book, and not surprisingly reaped praise from Home Office minister Hazel Blears when she visited East Lancashire yesterday.

It will earn the thanks of victims of crime, too, and of the highly-taxed motorists who pay their dues and are rankled at the thought of so many others dodging car tax, insurance and MoT tests.

Already its effectiveness in cracking down on this kind of evasion is being demonstrated in Pendle where more than 100 untaxed, unregistered and abandoned cars are being targeted, with enforcement action being taken against 50 vehicle owners in less than a week.

A hi-tech system that helps to sweep the community clean of crime and makes our roads safer has got to be welcomed.