BASINGSTOKE'S top police officer has made an outspoken call for magistrates to get tough with persistent juvenile offenders.

Superintendent Alison Queen told The Gazette she feels magistrates seem to be easily swayed by solicitors representing the juvenile tearaways instead of looking at their offences.

She believes the justices often follow a "sticking plaster approach" of light sentencing which can damage the young criminalsas well as the society they live in.

Referring to a persistent 16-year-old offender, who was returned to a detention centre for three months after he had breached the licence of an 18-month sentence that had 11 months to run, Supt Queen said: "This juvenile looks quite innocent in the flesh, but magistrates did not see his attitude to the police when he was initially dealt with.

"They see juveniles in an environment where they appear vulnerable and they know they have got the protection of their solicitor speaking for them.

"The magistrates seem to be too easily affected by what is said to them without looking at the wider picture. A juvenile doesn't get charged with 35 to 40 cases in three years without evidence."

Supt Queen believes a longer sentence would also be more beneficial for this particular youth, who she said is putting himself as well as the public in danger by stealing motorbikes.

She explained: "He said Feltham is 'rubbish', but he is not in prison long enough for anyone to help him to function in society. Instead, all we're doing is bouncing him from one place to another.

"It's a sticking plaster approach. If we don't sort him out now, he's never going to be an acceptable member of society. We have got to be cruel to be kind."

Supt Queen added that chasing this particular juvenile has also been a waste of police manpower.

"What we should be doing is camping on his doorstep as soon as he sets foot out of custody, but we don't have the resources and I don't think that is the right way to deal with him," she said.