Police were celebrating the success of a new piece of kit today which saw the arrest of a suspected burglar.

Two police officers used a mobile fingerprint identification device to arrest the man suspected of a recent burglary at the Oliver Cromwell Hotel, March.

A police spokesman said: “The suspect for the burglary was unable to hide his identity by giving a false name as the device does real time checks on the fingerprint database.”

Police said it was a good night for arrests across Wisbech, March and Chatteris.

Officers patrolling the area “carried out five stop searches for possession of drugs, issued two cannabis warnings, seized a vehicle for no insurance and arrested the driver for driving whilst disqualified”

Earlier this year chief constable Simon Parr spoke of the importance of mobile crime fighting technology.

He believes police officers with mobile devices can be effective and spend more time on the beat than at their desks doing paperwork.

Officers have in the past, he said, spent too much time going backwards and forwards to the police station.

“Its just wasting time and that time should be better spent out and about in the community working with the public,” he said.

“Investing in this technology means officers have at their fingertips the information they need in order to do their job.”