TEN people were arrested after police swooped on an industrial unit in Chadwell St Mary.

Officers from Thurrock's Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) were alerted by a call from a member of the public who'd tracked down his stolen car to the unit, which was being used as a chop shop.

The man had travelled to Essex from Oxfordshire following the theft of his vehicle and had seen it parked outside a unit on the Star commercial estate off St John's Road.

Officers raised a warrant and made six arrests after discovering dozens of suspicious vehicles and piles of parts.

Four more men then turned up at the scene and were also arrested.

So far, four vehicles at the site have been confirmed as stolen and an investigation is ongoing to track down the owners of other cars and vans found there.

Nine of the ten men arrested were subsequently released on bail. No further action will be taken against the tenth man.

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This picture from Essex Police shows the inside of the unit.

Chop shops are units where stolen cars are taken to be stripped down or have their identities altered before being sold on.

PC Ellie Hawkins of the NPT said: "The victim of the original theft did some good detective work and then did the sensible thing in contacting us rather than trying to retrieve the car himself.

"We found more than 80 vehicles at the site and the number of people working there shows this is a significant operation.

"It appears that some of the workers are also living there in pretty poor conditions, so we have done relevant safeguarding checks.

"What started off as a single theft has developed into a larger investigation that our Stolen Vehicle Intelligence Unit is now progressing."