POLICE blitzed private hire vehicles in Darwen for safety checks and found one unfit to be on the road.

Eight officers and several special constables were despatched around the town on two nights as part of Operation Rickshaw.

They set up checkpoints and pulled 40 taxis over to the side of the road and subjected the vehicles to a safety check.

Eight private hire vehicles were discovered to be committing motoring offences, such as having a bald tyre or an electrical fault.

Police ordered one taxi off the road after finding it had two bald tyres, no fire extinguisher or first aid kit, as well as a couple of minor faults. The owner now has to put the vehicle through a safety test before he is allowed to return to work.

The campaign, organised jointly between the police and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, was launched after officers became concerned about the possible number of dangerous private hire vehicles in the town.

Sergeant Neil Wilkinson, of Darwen police, said the search was also prompted after officers suspected many taxis were being used to ferry stolen property.

This was not confirmed at the weekend, although Sgt Wilkinson believes that the police campaign will have served to discourage other private hire vehicle owners from neglecting vehicle safety.

He said: "We set up checkpoints by the side of the road in between other duties and found eight private hire vehicles to be committing motoring offences.

"The offences were things like bald tyres, faulty electrics, or no first aid kit, and being basically unsafe.

"The one that was taken off the road had two bald tyres - it was quite dangerous, especially when you consider that it was carrying passengers."

Sgt Wilkinson added: "We haven't done anything like this for quite a while and we were beginning to get concerned at the offences of private hire vehicles.

"Taking that concern into account we decided that we would mount this operation over two nights."