BOYRACERS heading to Lakeside to get up to mischief have been met with a ring of steel.

Police were out in force to stop the reckless cruisers causing misery for business and residents.

In recent years cruisers, who have been banned from Basildon and pushed out of Southend, have headed for Thurrock.

They tear up and down the A126 and park up to perform stunts in nearby Oliver Road, the Tesco at Cygnet View, and Sainsbury’s in Burghley Road, Chafford Hundred.

Their behaviour has prompted a mass of complaints to police about the noise, the mess left behind and regular motorists alarmed by their reckless driving.

But on Saturday night it was a different story when police descended on the boyracers’ haunts mob-handed.

The crackdown formed part of a month-long blitz on cruisers, codenamed Operation Wagtail.

Officers set up a roadblock, starting at the A126 slip road for Lakeside.

From 10pm onwards every motorist entering the A126 was stopped and questioned as to where they were going.

Normal motorists were allowed to continue their journey, but boyracers in souped-up cars were promptly issued with a dispersal notice and sent home.

The notice gives police the power to ban cruisers from the area with immediate effect for a 12-hour period.

Hordes of cruisers were sent packing but, before they went home, police searched their cars for mechanical defects – such as broken lights or bald tyres – as well as for drugs.

Two cars, both containing young men, were subjected to a search by a police drugs dog after a strong smell of cannabis wafted out from both vehicles.

No arrests were made, but both cars were sent packing from the area.

PC Richard Smears, neighbourhood specialist officer for South West Thurrock, said: “The cruisers definitely seem to be getting the message.

“There is noticeably a lot less traffic coming into the area on Saturday nights as a result of this operation.”

Over the last four weeks of Operation Wagtail, police have arrested three people for various offences, carried out 43 vehicle searches, issued 66 fixed penalty notices for offences ranging from not wearing a seatbelt to light defects, seized 12 cars and banned hundreds of cruisers from Thurrock for 12 hours.