A HI-TECH scheme aimed at logging the biological fingerprints left by thieves in almost every stolen vehicle is being piloted in Southampton.

The DNA gathered by the Hampshire police initiative is being used to build up a bank of uncaught criminals' personal details, for use in future arrests.

Under the scheme - one of only two in the county - every suitable stolen vehicle recovered from the city's streets is being thoroughly examined by police forensic experts.

Since the six-month pilot's launch more than 300 vehicles have been examined and DNA samples left by the thieves entered into a national database.

If the crooks cannot be identified the samples are left on file in the hope they will match those taken routinely in future arrests.

Scenes-of-crime head Det Chief Insp Alan Betts, who fronts a squad of 40, said: "If you steal a car and you have not got any other convictions by which we could identify you, your DNA will go on a database.

"If in two years' time you are arrested you will have a DNA sample taken which will go on the database, producing a match.

"We will come and knock on your door and arrest you for motor vehicle theft.

"Obviously, this scheme has a lot of potential but we will have to wait and see how successful it is."

The pilot, which is also running in Portsmouth, comes after the number of vehicle crimes in the county reached 22,500 last year.

Officers managed only a 8.9 per cent detection success rate.

The figures were presented at a recent high-level conference on crime by Phillip Jacobs, Assistant Chief Constable for Hampshire.

He said: "For that reason we are piloting a scheme where every single vehicle that has been involved in a theft is going to be forensically examined by a forensic officer, so that we can extract as much as we can through DNA."

Chief Constable Paul Kern-aghan added: "It is something that we have invested a lot of money in.

"It's early days yet to say what success it is having but if it doesn't work, then we will look elsewhere."