The Prince of Darkness was not at all appreciative of a North Dakota sheriff’s “creative” use of his name in order to arrest missing criminal suspects.

Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney came up with an unusual plan in an attempt to find a great number of individuals with active criminal warrants.

Taking advantage of the fact that British rock veteran Ozzy Osbourne was in North Dakota for a gig, police officers sent invitations to 500 individuals with outstanding arrest warrants.

More than 30 people turned up and were duly arrested. NME.com reports that the invitations were for a party held before a concert scheduled for October 29 at a nearby arena.

The police operation was not to Ozzy’s liking, as he complained that the use of his name was downright “insulting,” for him personally and for his fans as well, and damaging to his reputation.

“Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests,” the Black Sabbath singer said in a statement. “It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job.”

The sheriff apologized to the 58-year-old singer, explaining that the ND police was only trying to do its job as well as possible.

“We meant no disrespect toward Mr Osbourne or his show. What we did was a very creative law enforcement technique to lure individuals who had active criminal warrants to come to us,” Laney said.

“They get very creative in how they abscond from the law,” the sheriff said about the suspects he was seeking. “We just got real creative in how we reeled them in.” He added that all the criminal invitees that appeared for the supposed party were detained.

According to his official website, www.ozzy.com, Ozzy has performances scheduled throughout the United States up to January 2008, with Rob Zombie.

While Ozzy’s ego was bruised by the North Dakota police operation, Laney has plenty to be satisfied about. “Three people called to say, ‘I got one of those letters. Since you're being so creative, I'm turning myself in. Give me a court date,’” the sheriff told the Associated Press.