CROOKS are rifling through bins in a bid to steal identities and credit card details.

Now police have offered Blackburn Bank Top residents free shredders to destroy personal documents.

Police said that over the past week they had received reports of two men sifting through bins in Oakenhurst Road and Stonyhurst Road.

It is believed they were looking for either documents with personal information so they could take out loans in someone else's name or credit card receipts so they could spend money on the internet.

PC Paul Meades, community beat manager for the area, said he wanted to do something as soon as possible because he was so concerned.

He asked The Range home and garden centre, Whitebirk, to help and the company donated 27 shredders.

These will be handed out to residents at the next Police and Community Together (PACT) meeting at Bank Top community centre on January 5.

PC Meades said: "The Range has been absolutely fantastic. We are hoping that this action will help nip it in the bud.

"Our advice to residents would be to shred anything with personal details or credit and debit card receipts.

"If you shred them someone will not be able to put them back together. It is better to be safe than sorry. Also, if the people looking through bins realise someone shreds their letters, they will become discouraged from continuing to sift through."

Identity theft is one of Britain's fastest growing crimes with one in 10 people said to have been victims. It is estimated to cost £1.3billion a year.

Common types of identity theft include high-tech handheld readers which can re-produce the magnetic strips on credit cards and spam e-mails which help access sensitive information on computers.