Surrey police have vowed to step up night patrols after car vandals ran riot through the borough, causing extensive damage to 50 vehicles last month.

The incidents occurred in Ashford, Staines and Sunbury, between Friday, March 7 and Sunday, March 9, and resulted in thousands of pounds worth of damage to vehicles, which had their windows smashed or tyres slashed.

As a result, the intensity of police patrols was increased, which has since resulted in a decrease in the number of reports of vandalism, as Ashford town beat officer, Peter Lacey, explained.

"The borough suffered badly over that particular weekend, at the beginning of the month, with many vehicles attacked.

"However, we have tracked the trail of destruction, and it would seem that a small number of offenders were responsible.

"Some arrests have been made and myself, along with other officers, have carried out a good number of late-night patrols, both in uniform and in plain-clothes, in an attempt to reduce the problem.

"It's a sad fact that in any urban area there will always be a small number of incidents each week, where damage is caused to vehicles parked on roads overnight.

"However, the scale of a few weekends ago was exceptional, and will not be tolerated.

"I would ask the public to remain alert and, if they hear a noise or hear a car alarm, to look out and provide us with a description of any offenders seen. We are having some success, as in the past two weekends, there have been very few damage incidents involving vehicles in the local area."