POLICE and civic leaders today cast doubt on the relevance to York of a crime survey that claimed one-in-four teenage boys is a serious or regular offender.

The shock Crime And Justice Survey prompted Yob Britain headlines in national newspapers, after it revealed that 25 per cent of youngsters aged 14 to 17 admitted being a prolific offender.

This meant they had carried out six or more offences in the last year. They had either committed serious crime like robbery and dealing hard drugs or had committed six or more offences - although the Home Office stressed the majority of the categories were minor, like failing to pay bus or train fares.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke branded the figures "appalling".

But police and councillors moved quickly to ease fears that York teenagers might be running amok.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman questioned whether the national survey painted a realistic picture of youth offending in the county.

The 2003 survey, which found evidence of 1.7 million active teen offenders, quizzed 12,000 people aged ten to 65 across the country. The spokesman said this did not appear to be a large enough pool to make firm conclusions.

The Home Office could not provide a regional breakdown of the youth statistics, and the spokesman said: "On the basis of a survey with a very small number of people, it's very hard to draw any firm conclusions about the situation in the county.

"But it would be very hard to believe there's such a high rate of criminality among young people."

He stressed North Yorkshire residents, of all ages, were generally law-abiding, and pointed to crime dropping 13 per cent on last year.

According to the last set of Youth Offending Team figures, the number of young criminals re-offending in York is on the rise.

The number of young people who received a community penalty but committed more crimes rose ten per cent since 2000 - and the head of the team admitted last May the figures were "concerning".

But Jill Holbert, who leads York's Youth Offending Team, today said that as the survey results were based on a system of self-reporting, rather than convictions, there was no way of making local comparisons.

York council leader Steve Galloway said he did not believe the "one-in-four" figure was correct as far as York was concerned. He said the vast majority of teenagers were a credit to the city.

Coun Galloway said a small element of youngsters were responsible for antisocial youth crime in the city.

Updated: 10:10 Thursday, January 27, 2005