Twenty-five motorists were stopped in a town centre in one day as part of a police operation.

On Saturday, three special inspectors, three special sergeants and seven special constables took part in a road safety initiative to help keep motorists safe in the Mill Way area of Sittingbourne.

In total, 22 people were stopped and reported for not wearing a seatbelt, one for using a mobile phone at the wheel, another was given a traffic offence report for driving a vehicle in an unsafe condition, and a car was seized for not having any insurance.

Officers were also joined by representatives from Swale council’s Environmental Enforcement Team who dealt with environmental offences including fly-tipping where one person was fined £400 for depositing controlled waste on Sheppey.

Special Chief Inspector Alan Watson said: "Operations like this play an important part in targeting motorists who choose to ignore the law and put lives at risk.

"Using a mobile phone whilst driving is simply reckless because it only takes a second to be distracted and cause a potentially fatal accident. Such a mistake could change your life forever."

He added: "Although the vast majority of people in Kent do drive responsibly there is still a small minority who don’t. This is unacceptable and we will continue to carry out enforcement activity within our communities to keep our roads as safe as possible.

"Special Constables are unpaid volunteers, many of whom have full-time jobs and give up some of their spare time to assist with important and varied work such as this. I would encourage anyone thinking about joining to get in touch. Visit www.kent.police.uk for more information."

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne