One of the senior police officers who ordered a crackdown on cards advertising call girls in phone boxes led the way by making an arrest.

The blitz is part of a rigorous police initiative launched by Chief Inspector Stuart Harrison and his boss Superintendent Graham Cox.

They have ordered more uniformed officers on to the streets to act as a visual deterrent to criminals and to make residents feel safer.

And Chief Inspector Harrison, second in command of Hove and Shoreham division, himself arrested one of the boy "carders" employed by the prostitutes.

He spotted him putting advertisements in phone boxes in the Davigdor Road, Palmeira Avenue and Holland Road areas.

The carder was arrested and his details passed on to Brighton and Hove Council for prosecution.

He was later fined £275, with £250 costs and a destruction order was made for the cards seized.

The council has also prosecuted two more carders for putting call girl adverts in phone boxes.

Sergeant Paul Glynn, of Hove police, said: "I have removed almost a thousand cards from phone boxes recently, as have other officers.

"There are about a dozen phone booths from the Town Hall down to Western Road which the carders target.

"Whenever we see the cards we simply take them down, tear them in half and put them in the nearest bin.

"If we catch any of the carders in the act they will be arrested and their cards seized as evidence.

"People have said they have noticed that there are not so many cards in phone boxes.

"They appreciate that we are removing them as it decreases the fear of crime that these cards can create."

Hove MP Ivor Caplin led a campaign against cards in the city's telephone boxes.

He said up to a million were removed every year in Brighton and Hove.

The Government is considering fines of up to £1,000.

Home Office Minister Lord Bassam of Brighton has said new laws to ban them should also cover bus shelters and buildings.