A MASSIVE crackdown on car boot sales is taking place in Cheddar after reports that dangerous knives and illegal cigarettes are being sold.

A MASSIVE crackdown on car boot sales is taking place in Cheddar after reports that dangerous knives and illegal cigarettes are being sold.

More than £3,000 worth of cigarettes were seized by officers at a car boot sale on Sunday after a man was caught selling them illegally.

An undercover police officer had been sent to the sale at Winchester Farm in Draycott Road after a number of concerned residents reported that youngsters were being sold knives.

Sergeant Mike Tripp, of Cheddar police, said: “We’ve had a number of reports of people selling knives to youngsters under 16. We sent a plain clothes police officer up there, but didn’t find any evidence of this, but the officer did find a man selling stolen, Polish cigarettes.”

The goods were seized and the matter is now being dealt with by Customs and Excise officers.

A huge array of knives and replica guns of all makes and sizes can be purchased at car boot sales in the county but police are concerned they could be falling into the wrong hands.

Sgt Tripp said: “We often get complaints about people selling replica guns or knives to youngsters under 16 so we do patrol the boot sales quite regularly.

“We’ve got no intelligence to suggest people around here are selling to

youngsters because we’ve never found people carrying any knives during our stop checks.

“But we will be keeping an eye on car boot sales to make sure they aren’t selling to people under-age.”