Businesses in the West End are forming a network to help crack down on shoplifters.

A group of stores has agreed to pass information quickly among themselves if any get hit by thieves. Representatives of stores met this week with community beat officer P.c. Donville Yarde to agree the strategy.

The shops also want to ensure all stores in their area check identification when customers cash cheques or use bank cards to thwart the crooks.

The stores - the MarketPlace in Somerset, Hayward's, SAL, Lines Grocery Store, Telford Enterprises, White's and Lindos - will be visited by a crime prevention officer to tighten up their in-store security.

"We are trying to get all store owners to make a report to the Police so we have a record of this. If you just say to a thief `don't come back,' he will tell all his friends that nothing happens if he gets caught," said P.c. Yarde.

He said one thief who was arrested at 10 a.m. had already hit Arnold's, the MarketPlace, Somerset, and Lindo's in Warwick that day.

And he told the store bosses they have the right to make a citizen's arrest inside the store if a thief passes the checkout without paying for goods, rather than waiting until they leave the store.

Shops can hire Police officers, either plain clothed or in uniform this Christmas, to act as security guards on their time off.