Ticket touts hoping to make a quick buck at next week’s Wimbledon tennis championships will have to be wary of police who have been given special powers to deal with them.

Wandsworth Council, Merton Council and the Metropolitan Police have teamed up to introduce a special two-week dispersal zone to keep the illegal ticket-sellers at bay.

The zone applies to the area around the All England Club and includes the precincts around Southfields, Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon stations.

Anyone suspected of ticket touting can be ordered by a uniformed policed officer to leave the zone and not return for 24 hours - anyone who returns before that deadline will be arrested.

The police have already written to known touts warning them to steer clear of the area but anyone caught actually selling tickets faces immediate arrest.

Councillor Jonathan Cook, Wandsworth Council's environment spokesman, said: "It is important that we do all we can to prevent fans being ripped off.

"Some of the touts use pretty aggressive and underhand tactics to sell tickets at vastly inflated prices.

"In some cases the tickets are fake and there have been occasions when touts have taken money from unsuspecting fans and then simply disappeared."

This year will be the sixth time that a dispersal zone has been in force at the championships.

Since the tactic was first employed, there has been a big fall in the number of touting problems in the area.