POLICE have shed light on a new device which they hope will crack down on motorists who have cars with tinted windows.

Accrington's Road Policing Unit is concerned that many vehicles with tinted windows do not let enough light in and impair the vision of drivers.

Vehicles should allow 75 per cent of light in through the front windscreen or driver and passenger side front windows but the tinted glass fitted in some vehicles is too dark.

Officers have this month launched a clampdown using the Tintman, a hand-held instrument manufactured by Turnkey Instruments to measure the percentage of light getting through tinted glass.

The device, which is worth £500, can also measure the amount of light passing through tinted motorcycle helmets.

Officers will be stopping vehicles to check if they comply with the requirements over the next few weeks and on 26 April between 10am and 2pm there will be the opportunity for motorists to drop into the Road Policing Unit at Accrington Police Station and have their windows checked out.

Police have warned that after 26 April they will consider prosecuting the owners of vehicles with windows which breach safety regulations.

PC Keith Jackson of the Road Policing Unit said: "We will be checking vehicles to make sure they comply. We will be stopping people and checking the vehicles in conjunction with the ANPR system.

"The idea is to give people time and make them aware that we are going to be doing this and allow people to come in and have their windows checked. But after the 26 April date we will be considering prosecution."