Shropshire Star

Telford in top ten of yob league in England and Wales

Telford & Wrekin has one of the highest juvenile offending rates in the country, according to new crime figures.

Published

The borough had the sixth highest youth-offending rate in the country, according to figures provided by every police force in England and Wales.

The table showed that the offending rate among under 18s was 641 per 100,000 in Telford & Wrekin – more than six times that in Monmouthshire and Surrey, which had the best-behaved youngsters. Nottingham had the most unruly youngsters in the country, with 822 offenders per 100,000, followed by Swindon with 729. Wolverhampton came 10th, with a youth-crime rate of 606 per 100,000.

At the other end of the scale, Monmouthshire had the lowest rate of juvenile crime, with an offending rate of 101 per 100,000.

Russell Griffin of Telford & Wrekin Council said: "It is no secret that Telford has some disadvantaged areas and one of the symptoms of that tends to be a high crime rate, so these figures come as no surprise.

One of the many reasons that we have positioned ourselves as a business-winning and business-supporting council is to drive inward investment, increasing growth and creating more jobs.

"The more successful we are at doing this, the better jobs become available in the borough which increases the aspirations of our young people and in turn reduces symptoms of deprivation like poverty and crime."

Inspector Paul Mathison said: "Our Safer Neighbourhood Teams work closely with local schools to educate children on the harm and distress that can be caused to the local community by criminal and anti-social behaviour."

John Campion, West Mercia police commissioner, said: "I will hold the Chief Constable to account for proactively finding the causes of crime so that threats are identified and targeted before they escalate. However, I also see a need to identify the underlying causes of crime and not criminalise children unless it is necessary to do so."

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