Police have cracked down on driving offenders by stopping over 600 vehicles on a north-east road last week.
Coordinated patrols were carried out on a 176-mile strip on the A90 from Fraserburgh to Edinburgh from Monday, April 11 until Friday, April 15.
During the patrols, officers employed number plate recognition technology to target specific offenders.
As a consequence, police caught 185 drivers speeding during the week-long operation, with five motorists travelling at over 100mph.
Officers further dealt with 31 drivers in relation to careless or dangerous driving.
Another 17 drivers were reported for using mobile phones while driving and 43 were found to have no tax or expired MOTs.
A total of 98 vehicles were found to have defects, with six of the more serious problems leading to the vehicles being immediately prohibited from public roads.
Eleven vehicles were also seized by police after being used without insurance or by drivers who were disqualified, had no licence or were driving outwith the conditions of their licence.
Sergeant Steve Manson from the Trunk Road Policing Group, who led the operation, was concerned by the number of people found to be breaking the law.
He said: “We have carried out a number of operations to reduce road casualties and influence driver and road user behaviour, as well as detecting and deterring criminality on our roads.
“This is the biggest operation of this type we have undertaken.
“The intention was to influence driver behaviour by providing a large presence on a single route, with officers targeting specific offences that are linked to injury collisions
“The figures show the benefit of these types of operations, with a wide variety of offences being detected and a number of dangerous vehicles being put off the road.
“Some of the drivers who were stopped for more serious offences will be summoned to court at a later date.
“However, many of the drivers were issued with fixed penalties of three points on their licence and a £100 fine.
“Despite the volume of vehicles stopped, it is encouraging that no drivers were detected driving under the influence of alcohol.”
