BURY'S "most wanted" offenders have been swept from the streets.

Now police are celebrating the success of the two-week Operation Clean-up which resulted in 44 prolific criminals in the borough being arrested and 37 of them charged for crimes, including robbery and burglary.

The force-wide operation was launched at the beginning of March and involved each police division targeting their top 30 most prolific offenders.

Within the first few days, Bury police tracked down virtually all of their targets and half were immediately charged including two men who were sent to prison for four months after admitting a wide range of offences.

Having met their target but with the operation still in its infancy, local police chiefs used the extra police patrols to extend their search for even more offenders.

Chief Inspector Dave Wolfe, head of operations in Bury, said: "During the two weeks the operation was running, officers pulled out all the stops to arrest the prolific offenders.

"Raiding addresses and knocking on doors proved extremely successful and the persistence of officers certainly paid off. Everyone is delighted by the success of this operation."

Throughout Greater Manchester, a total of 826 criminals were arrested and 592 of them have been charged with serious offences.

In one case, a 19-year-old who was on recall to prison, became so fed up with officers knocking on the doors of his family and friends that he gave himself up.

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Green praised all the officers across the county for their efforts. He said: "As a result of determined intelligence gathering throughout the operation and also the extra DNA, fingerprint and forensic testing resources more than half of the sub-divisions have actually exceeded their target.

"Even though we have technically reached the end of Operation Clean-up our efforts to apprehend outstanding criminals will not stop. We will continue to track them down and prevent them from making people's lives a misery."