Tearaways across North Yorkshire could soon be fitted with electronic tags if a bid for £1 million of Government cash is successful.

Experts believe use of the new technology would dramatically affect reoffending rates and make the county a safer place.

The York and North Yorkshire Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) have lodged the bid to fund an intensive programme for the county's worst persistent young offenders.

A group of 18 such youngsters in York are believed to be responsible for a significant amount of youth crime in the city, including car thefts, burglaries and assaults.

David Poole, manager of the York YOT, said: "If successful, this programme would be very good news for the city and make it a much safer place to live and work.

"A lot of resources would be devoted to this very demanding group and this would dramatically affect reoffending rates."

Tagging can help enforce curfews by electronically monitoring an offender's whereabouts. If they move outside a certain radius, an operator is alerted and the offender could face charges of breaching their curfew order.

The Government money would also pay for intensive supervision for persistent young offenders. Together with a YOT worker, who would see them for five hours a day, five days a week, they would look at why they were offending, how to stop offending, as well as dealing with drug and education issues, if appropriate.

The York YOT, which has now been established for a year, hopes to build on its other successes.

Working with local police, courts and Crown Prosecution Service, the team has substantially reduced the time it takes from arrest to sentencing for persistent young offenders.

The most recent figures show that it takes 53 days from arrest to sentencing - the Government's target is 71 days.

Recent figures show that all reparation orders - which can involve working on environmental projects in the community under the supervision of YOT workers - have been completed successfully.

"Reparation orders encourage young people to give something back to the community in which they offended," said Mr Poole.

"And they place a lot of value in the work they do."

david.wiles@ycp.co.uk

Updated: 10:28 Saturday, April 14, 2001