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Nearly 40 kerb crawlers have been caught on Teesside in six months.

The majority of the men were local but one had travelled in a camper van from Tyneside, Cleveland Police said.

Plain-clothes police officers caught eight men in the first five days of a new operation targeting parts of Middlesbrough and Stockton.

The force said it wanted to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by street prostitution, and target men exploiting vulnerable sex workers.

Twenty-eight men have been sent on a one day course to "address their behaviour", a spokesperson said.

The others have been sent to court or are still to be dealt with by police.