Today we learn that a group of car criminals may have been operating from out of Bradford, stealing high-value vehicles to order across the district and beyond.

Police say burglars were breaking into people’s homes to take their keys before making off with their vehicles.

As well as losing their cars, anyone unlucky enough to have been targeted in such a way would also have had to cope with the trauma of having had an intruder in their house. Burglary, after all, is still burglary.

And even those who were insured would have been left out of pocket because of increased premiums, loss of no-claims bonuses and the like.

It is too early to say what impact this operation will have had – in one sense this is only the beginning.

Officers expect to make more arrests in the coming months, and we will only truly know for certain how effective it has been if people are found guilty in the courts and sentenced accordingly.

But it is a welcome sign that the police are looking to take the fight to criminals – and long may that continue.

For it is fair to say the public are fed up with villains swaggering around thinking they are untouchable, and if this operation gives one or two of them a few sleepless nights, that is all to the good.