Career criminals have started to avoid the West Midlands stretch of the M6 because it is so closely monitored for suspicious activity, police intelligence reports have shown.

The reports reveal that lawbreakers are choosing to take a detour if they need to use the motorway between Rugby in Warwickshire and Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire for fear of being caught.

Police believe this is because the West Midlands is the only region in the country where traffic officers, employed by the Highways Agency, help local forces patrol and monitor the motorways.

Since the initiative started 15 months ago, 159 traffic officers have freed up police time by attending minor road accidents, helping drivers and reducing congestion from their regional control centre in Quinton, Birmingham.

Chief Superintendent Nick Croft, from West Midlands Police's Central Motorway Police Group, believes the partnership between police and the Highways Agency traffic officers has enabled drivers in the West Midlands to travel on safer roads.

He said: "Police intelligence shows that if you are a career criminal, you are choosing to avoid the M6 because more police officers are available to stop you there.

"This is because the Highways Agency traffic officers has freed up police time by dealing with road congestion and traffic management so that we are able to increasingly focus our attention on our core work of tackling criminality.

"No doubt, the public would prefer police to be detaining a burglar than to be stuck behind a heavy goods lorry on the road having its tyre changed. We used to have to juggle both before the traffic officers came along.

"Traffic officers are managing routine incidents without the need for police supervision, but we do work together at major incidents. Motorists travelling through the Midlands are seeing the results of this initiative with safer more reliable journeys and they are also getting a much better service."

From this month Highways Agency traffic officers have also been on duty at night, so that their service is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

They cover one of the most busy sections of motorway in Europe. It stretches from Stoke-on-Trent in the north to Tewkesbury in the south and from Leicester in the east to Shrewsbury in the west.

Although they cannot arrest members of the public or issue fines, they can put diversions in place, lower speed limits, remove debris from the roads and close lanes.

The West Midlands model is being copied across the country and by April 2006 the Highways Agency will employ traffic officers in seven regional centres at a cost of #66 million per year.

Chief Supt Croft said: "The West Midlands should be proud that it is leading the country in making motorways a safer place. I believe this is a huge success story."