Threats of a vigilante reaction against the vandals who have blighted the town over the last few weeks will not be tolerated by police.

Some residents have taken to social media over the last two months to suggest they will seek retribution for the attacks.

However, Superintendent McLean says he would never condone such threats and would “come down very harshly on it.”

He said: “If anybody commits any criminal offences and uses the justification of their car being damaged we won’t tolerate it.

“The point I’d make is if they know who they are going to assault, or whose property or car they’re going to damage, then they know who is doing it, so tell us about it, let us catch them and let us lock them up.

“If they our police team to come and talk to them we are very happy to do that and talk about what the officers are doing, but we won’t and cannot accept people taking the law into their own hands.”