A SHOP Watch system in Oxted helped to stop trouble-making youngsters in their tracks.

Under the scheme, more than 20 businesses have received walkie-talkie radios, which are all linked to each other and to the police via a central computer, so they can alert each other instantly about antisocial behaviour.

The equipment was put to good use on December 16, when a group of children were throwing objects at cars and verbally abusing passers-by outside Sainsbury's in Station Road East.

An employee at the supermarket, who had also been verbally abused, used the radio system to warn other shops and contact the police.

Police officers based at Tandridge District Council offices, also in Station Road East, arrived quickly and issued the culprits with an antisocial behaviour warning and took them home to their parents.

PC Tristan Barnett, neighbourhood specialist officer for the town, said: "This incident is a great example of how Shop Watch can be used to make officers on the beat aware of local crime as it happens. We were literally on the scene within a minute of the member of staff asking for police assistance and were able to quickly locate the suspects.

"The reason the scheme works so well is that it enables members of the public to actively help us to help them."

It has taken Oxted Chamber of Commerce almost a year to get the scheme up and running. It was implemented owing to an increase in shoplifting in the area and went live in November.

Paul Dashwood, chairman of the chamber, said he is delighted that the scheme is already a "great success".

Mr Dashwood, whose wife Fiona owns a business in the town, added: "The message we want to send is, 'Don't even think about shoplifting or committing antisocial behaviour in Oxted, you will be caught!'"

The funding for the system was provided by Tandridge Community Safety Partnership – an initiative between Tandridge District Council, Surrey County Council and Surrey Police.

Sam Cohen is the managing director of Wall to Wall Communications, the company that provides the radio system.

He said: "If a conventional phone line was used, the call would have been diverted through an operator, who would send a message to the local police and then they would still radio the nearest patrols on duty to give them the exact location.

"All those extra steps would have taken at least an extra ten minutes, if not more, by which time the perpetrators would have escaped."