FATHER Christmas has joined forces with a crime-fighting charity.

Crimestoppers has launched a Secret Santa campaign in the region to encourage people to provide information on criminals anonymously.

Dave Hunter, Northern regional manager for Crimestoppers, said: “We would like to thank the public for the support that they give us throughout the year and we would like them to continue to give the criminals no joy and no season’s greetings for this year.

“We encourage members of the community to give us information about drug dealing, burglary, theft, abuse or any other crime that they have information on.

“We would wish all the criminals in our community a very unhappy Christmas”

To give information anonymously call Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org