Four out of ten offenders are career criminals

CAREER criminals make up almost 40 per cent of offenders, according to figures published yesterday.

Serial law-breakers – with at least 15 previous convictions or cautions – are committing a higher proportion of serious crimes than ever before.

The statistics released by the Ministry of Justice prompted criticism of ‘pointless short-term sentences’ which fail to stop criminals re-offending.

They also show that prosecutions in England and Wales are at an all-time low – despite rising levels of reported crime.

In the year to September 2018, 37 per cent of convicts were prolific offenders with a long history of law-breaking.

But that figure rises to 40 per cent of those convicted of serious crimes such as murder, rape and robbery – the highest proportion since records began in 1970.

A quarter of serial offenders have never been to prison during their life of crime and 94 per cent had at least one spell claiming out-of-work benefits.

In the 12 months to last September, 1.37million defendants had legal action taken against them – which is a drop of 4 per cent on the previous year.

The total number of individuals formally dealt with by the criminal justice system, through measures such as cautions and penalty notices, also dropped by 5 per cent to 1.59million.

These two figures are the lowest recorded since records began.

Falls in the number of prosecutions were recorded in most categories, including violence against the person, sexual offences, theft and drug crime.

But the falling numbers come at a time when the number of crimes reported to police is on the rise.

Last year, forces in England and Wales logged just over 5million offences, excluding fraud, which was an 8 per cent increase on the previous year.

The rise was fuelled by jumps in recorded violence against the person, robbery and sexual crimes.

But the Ministry of Justice’s report yesterday said the increase is ‘ believed to be associated with improved recording among police forces and victims’ greater willingness to report crimes’. Nearly 1.2mil-