A MAJOR crackdown on travelling bank robbers has been launched by detectives.
Dubbed Operation Guard, it follows a spate of robberies over the past week in Lancashire, including Darwen.
Officers using Automatic Number Plate Recognition will be deployed in areas known to be used by travelling criminals and on the motorway network.
The force says it believes robberies in the past week were carried out by criminals from outside the county.
The number plate recognition system works by scanning passing vehicle registrations and checking them against information stored in a number of databases.
Four armed men stole cash from security staff when they made a delivery to the Abbey National Bank in Market Street, Darwen, last Tuesday.
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