NEARLY 50 offenders have been arrested since a vice crackdown began in Ipswich's red light area, police said today.Since the new strategy was implemented to stamp out prostitution from the streets 35 kerb crawlers have been caught.

NEARLY 50 offenders have been arrested since a vice crackdown began in Ipswich's red light area, police said today.

Since the new strategy was implemented to stamp out prostitution from the streets 35 kerb crawlers have been caught.

A further eight people have been arrested for outraging public decency and another four for soliciting women.

The vast majority have been offered, and accepted, cautions after admitting the offences.

The remaining four have appeared before South East Suffolk Magistrates Court in Ipswich.

Louise Rosher, a spokeswoman for Suffolk police, said 16 of the 47 men were from Ipswich, 11 from other areas of Suffolk, eight from Essex, four from Cambridgeshire and eight from outside East Anglia between March 3 and June 11.

Earlier this week police in Ipswich said they believed they were on track to stamp out the town's long-standing vice problem.

However, district commander Chief Inspector Bruce Robinson warned more men would be arrested and others threatened with arrest before the problem was solved all together.

He said: “I really do think we're making real inroads into the problem. The arrest figures for a three-month period are very good. There are fewer kerb crawlers coming into Ipswich than there were at the beginning of the year.”

Apart from those arrested, more than 40 letters have been sent to men caught driving through the red-light district without a good reason.

On Tuesday this week Roy Lawrence, of Castle Hedingham, Essex pleaded guilty to soliciting women for prostitution when he appeared before Ipswich magistrates.

The 60-year-old was given a conditional discharge, ordered to pay £45 costs and given an anti-social behaviour order banning him from certain areas of Ipswich between 7pm and 7am.

The following day a former police vice squad officer, currently based at Shoreditch CID in Hackney Borough also appeared before magistrates charged with kerb-crawling.

Detective sergeant Mark Daniel, 34, of Grimwood Close, Brantham, was arrested on Sunday at Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate in Ipswich. Daniel has not yet entered a plea to the charge and is due back in court on July 11.

A CHARITY launched in the wake of the killings of five women on the outskirts of Ipswich continues to go from strength to strength today.

The Somebody's Daughter Memorial Fund was created in conjunction with Ipswich Borough Council after the bodies of Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell were found in remote rural locations last December.

All had worked in the sex trade and all were blighted by drug habits.

The campaign's goal is to raise enough money to open a refuge where those embroiled in prostitution and drugs can seek support and guidance.

Donations to the memorial fund can be made online at www.eveningstar.co.uk, in person at Ipswich Borough Council's customer service centre in the Town Hall, by calling 01473 433777, or by sending a cheque, made payable to Somebody's Daughter Memorial Fund, to PO Box 772, Ipswich Borough Council, Grafton House, 15-17 Russell Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 2DE.