Hamilton criminals handing themselves in

Sergeant Aaron Alderton. File photo / NZ Herald

A Hamilton police operation has been so successful that career criminals are now handing themselves in, police say.

Sergeant Aaron Alderton said the objective of Operation Persil was to keep pressure applied to the activity of recidivist dishonesty and violent offenders.

"On Monday we went public via the media for the need of those subject to court imposed sanctions to adhere to them or run the risk of having officers on their door step any where - any time," he said.

"And that message seems to have sunken in. At that time we'd seen four people turn themselves in however by the close of play yesterday that figure had risen to 16 and already this morning there's been another two."

This follows on from the activities of the operational team in October that saw 15 people surrender themselves.

"The public is pretty clear they are fed up with burglars using stolen property to fund their drug habits and this operation is about getting under the skin of those people who, despite having gone before the courts, continue to offend while on bail or on detention," Mr Alderton said.

Into its second year Operation Persil has so far accounted for over 300 arrests and has highlighted issues surrounding the correlation between dishonesty offending such as burglary and receiving and the illicit drugs trade and the proliferation of illegal firearms.

However, police warned Hamilton residents not to be complacent saying in recent days thieves had been targeting occupied homes with doors and windows left open due to the warm weather.

"We're not saying live in a furnace but what we are saying is that if you need to leave windows open, secure them and don't leave your doors open or unlocked when you're sleeping."

- NZHERALD STAFF