Police stopped almost 60 motorists during a crackdown which saw three arrests, a number of vehicles seized and two cabbies having their licenses suspended.
The Staffordshire force teamed up with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the driving vehicle standards agency to check dozens of vehicles on Trentham Road with some found to have serious defects.
Traffic cops have also revealed how they caught a suspected disqualified driver with a knuckle duster while a motorist failed a roadside drug test - while a child was in their vehicle.
The force has confirmed that during the operation in Newstead a total of 57 vehicles were stopped.
PC Dan Forester, from Staffordshire Police, said: “Within the Stoke-on-Trent South local policing area we have three sites where we have been working with the DVSA and the city council licensing department.
“Generally figures show our roads are getting safer however the public, who are the eyes and ears, highlight a lot of road issues to us and because of that we wanted to do this to provide reassurance to them.
“We wanted to prevent people from driving without insurance and promote road safety. We hope this can reduce road traffic collisions.
“It was a great operation but it is not just about prosecutions but we want people to drive in a safe manner."
Three men, all from Stoke-on-Trent, were in custody today with a 31-year-old arrested for providing a positive drug swipe, a 32-year-old who was arrested on suspicion of disqualified driving, providing a positive drug swipe, possession of criminal property and possession of an offensive weapon. The third, a 27-year-old, was arrested on suspicion of driving while disqualified and providing a positive drug swipe.
Meanwhile officers oversaw three vehicles having window tints removed. Officers also caught one motorist on their phone, three not wearing seatbelts, and one driver reported for having a bald tyre. Two notification notices were issued in relation to tyres, two motorists reported for 'lighting offences' while three vehicles were seized for not being insured.
The DVSA also handed out three delayed prohibition notices - meaning motorists must arrange for repairs, while there were five immediate ones for more serious defects. A fixed penalty was issued for a bald tyre.
The city council's licensing team also spoke with the 21 cabbies who were pulled over. Out of that number action was taken with regards 15 - including advice, while two had their taxi licenses suspended.
Principal licensing officer Penny Foreman, said: “We were just checking drivers were complying with their conditions and that they were safe.
“We get out from time to time and our objective is to keep our customers safe so we have had people here checking the vehicle standards and to make sure drivers have all of their signs in place.”
As part of the operation the Staffordshire Safer Roads Partnership were conducting speed checks on Lightwood Road and Sandon Road in Meir.
Officers were also out with a speed gun on Lysander Road, also in Meir.
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