REVEALED: How career villains keep walking free
ALMOST 200 prolific criminals across the region – each with more than 50 convictions – avoided jail sentences for their latest offences, the M.E.N. can reveal.
Our analysis of Ministry of Justice statistics found 197 offenders with 50 or more convictions in Greater Manchester were given non-custodial sentences by the courts.
Police have hit out at the statistics, pointing a finger at ‘soft’ sentences with regard to repeat offending.
And an MP claimed in response that the criminal justice system ‘has got its priorities wrong,’ saying the public ‘needs a rest’ from prolific offenders.
Worryingly, our study found that among offenders aged 10 to 17, 60 had already racked up 10 or more convictions – and 36 of them walked free when they appeared in court in 2016.
Statistics for 2016 are the latest available from the MoJ, and the latest sentences they were convicted of aren’t revealed.
One offender with 40 previous convictions for burglary, and 86 previous convictions in total, was given a noncustodial sentence – for yet another burglary, the figures revealed.
The statistics showed that of those convicted in the Greater Manchester Police force area in 2016, 96 people had at least 75 previous convictions. Of those 96, 56 received non-custodial sentences in the courts for their latest offences. Our analysis, compiled after a Freedom of Information request, revealed a non-custodial sentence was given to an offender convicted of sexual offences other than rape, despite the person having 14 previous convictions for sexual offences and 192 previous convictions in total.
One offender with 26 previous convictions for drug offences was also given a non-custodial sentence for further drug offences.
A GMP police officer said: “The courts are far too soft, but their hands are tied by out-of-date guidelines. It’s very frustrating arresting the same offenders and seeing them immediately released.”
Labour’s Blackley and Broughton MP Graham Stringer said: “The criminal justice system has got its priorities wrong. Its main priority should be to protect the public from people who have committed serious crime. The system is clearly not doing this.”
The Ministry of Justice said: “Sentencing is a matter for the independent judiciary, who take into account the full facts of each case.”