POLICE in Accrington are targeting a hit list of 20 prolific offenders as part of a Christmas crime blitz.

Operation Ebenezer got under way yesterday with the switch-on of the town's festive lights, which also marked the start of late-night shopping and Sunday opening.

Police will target the top 20 offenders, mainly shoplifters, in a bid to reduce town centre crime for the third consecutive year.

They will also focus on hotspots including Broadway, Union Street, and Eastgate Retail Park.

Shopkeepers in the Hyndburn Association of Retail Traders (HART) will have a list of photographs of the top 20 offenders and if they are spotted, traders can alert police and other traders via the radio link, which is connected to the CCTV system.

"We have a mixture of travelling criminals and people who live locally who we have identified as the most prolific, and we will be targeting them," said Sergeant Mark Porter, Accrington police's town centre manager.

"The emphasis will be on crime prevention. We have two extra officers dedicated to the operation as well as the town centre team. We are targeting, as we always do, crimes that usually show an increase in the run-up to Christmas, such as purse snatches and shoplifting, and the more serious crimes like robberies, with the emphasis on high visibility crime prevention.

"The last couple of years we have been very successful in reducing crime but we don't want to become complacent. We need to keep the crime levels as low as possible."

The operation is a joint initiative with the town centre regeneration board and the chamber of trade-.

Elsewhere in East Lancashire, Ribble Valley's seasonal crimefighting drive will get under way at the beginning of December, focusing on businesses. Inspector Bob Ford, said: "We will be doing extra patrols of places where we can expect more activity like cash deliveries such as supermarkets."