Payback orders being breached

A third of criminals ordered by the courts to carry out menial tasks in the community around the West Midlands are failing to finish them, the Express & Star can reveal today.

The figures have prompted criticism from the Conservatives who are calling for proper sentences "not gimmicks".

More than 5,000 convicts, including those found guilty of carrying knives and theft, have been told to clean up canals, cut back shrubs and clear rubbish under the Government's Community Payback (CP) scheme.

But West Midlands Probation Service today revealed that only around 65 per cent of the orders were being successfully completed.

Figures obtained by the Express & Star show that in Wolverhampton over the past year, 564 criminals were sentenced to CP.

In Sandwell, the figure was 555, in Dudley it was 431 and in Walsall, 573. Across the whole of the West Midlands, 5,236 lawbreakers were given the punishment, working a total of 431,078 hours.

Although Community Payback has been running for some years, officials last month launched a campaign allowing people in the Black Country to use the internet to vote on exactly what criminals should be doing in their neighbourhoods.

Ali Bell, senior communications officer for the West Midlands Probation Service, said today a failure to comply was one reason for orders not being completed. Others include further offending leading to another sentence being imposed "or other reasons such as moving house or getting injured".

She added: "If no evidence is produced, they are recorded as having an unacceptable absence. If that happens for a second time, they are breached and returned to court."