BRITAIN’S soft-touch justice system is today laid bare — as it is revealed just ten per cent of offenders are responsible for half of all crime.
Yet criminals with up to 300 previous offences are still being let off at court without being sent to jail.
Drug dealers, thieves and shoplifters are being allowed to walk free despite records which expose a life of crime.
Furious campaigners want tough action on so-called “boomerang offenders”.
Yet the Government is already facing controversy over releasing thousands of prisoners early as the country runs out of jail cells.
Dr Lawrence Newport, the founder of campaign group Crush Crime, said: “There is no excuse for the Government to be lenient on these offenders.
“Many career criminals are responsible for hundreds of crimes.
“The public must be protected.”
The academic has urged the Government to use the sentencing review being led by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke to ensure that convicts with long records are banged up.
These so-called prolific offenders are criminals with 16 or more previous convictions.
This number is slightly lower for juvenile prolific offenders depending on their age.
There are 526,000 prolific offenders in England and Wales, according to Ministry of Justice statistics — about one in ten of all criminals.
They are responsible for around half of all crimes that end up in court — a staggering 10.5 million sentencings.
On average they have been convicted 20 times before.
But a series of recent cases reveal that many lifelong criminals are still getting off at court without a prison sentence — despite their records.
Joseph Phillips was let off with a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to two thefts from cars — despite having more than 300 offences on his record, according to court reports.
Phillips, 50, of Nelson, Lancs, was handed the sentence by Blackburn magistrates in October 2020.
Meanwhile, Owen Hill avoided jail for attacking a police officer, carrying drugs and breaching a suspended sentence — despite having more than 70 offences to his name.
Hill, who was 30 and from Scarborough, North Yorks, when he received the sentence at York crown court last year, had past convictions for burglaries, robbery and assault, according to court documents.
In another case, Otis Tomney was convicted for burglary and possessing more than 300 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin after trials at Portsmouth crown court last year.
Despite having 31 previous convictions for 120 offences, he only got a two-year suspended sentence for two years.
Dr Newport said these weak sentences are fuelling Britain’s crime epidemic.
He added: “The sentencing review must ensure career criminals are jailed for longer — the more offences they have committed, the longer they should serve.
“The British public must be protected — the Government must act and jail career criminals.”
Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, writing in The Sun on Sunday, said it is a travesty that repeat offenders are not being locked up.
He wrote: “We can’t allow this to become the new normal.
“It’s obvious that these individuals need to be locked up behind bars so we can protect the public, give communities breathing space and slash crime rates.
“We believe in second chances, but not 50th or over 100 chances — that’s madness.”
Prolific offenders are most likely to have started their criminal career by thieving, according to MoJ data.
These thefts are a gateway crime and often escalates to drugs and violence offences.
But while concern is growing, there are also fears the Labour Government will actually water down prison sentences.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has released thousands of prisoners early because we risked running out of jail cells.
An MoJ spokeswoman said: “The new Government inherited a justice system in crisis.
“Prisons were overcrowded and close to collapse.
“Reoffending rates were too high, with prisons that had become a breeding ground for crime.
“This Government has taken immediate action to address the crisis in our jails.
“And we have tasked the independent sentencing review to look at how to punish prolific offenders to reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer.”
By Robert Jenrick, Tory shadow Justice Secretary
Right now it feels like we’re living through a crime wave.
People are living in fear walking down their high street or heading home late at night.
Going to the post Christmas sales, shoppers hold their phones tight, worried they might be the latest victims of the ruthless moped gangs.
I have my own stories and I am sure you do too.
It shouldn’t be this way.
We have record numbers of police officers and the police have been mandated to go to every burglary by the previous Government.
But it is.
Career criminals are getting away with crime on an epic scale.
Since 2007, 50,000 criminals with over 50 previous convictions have been spared jail time.
Criminals like Joseph Philips who had 300 convictions for theft, but when sentenced received no prison sentence.
Or Owen Hill, who was convicted of assaulting a police officer, but was spared jail despite having 70 previous convictions.
These hardened criminals are being allowed to offend again and again with impunity. They’re ruining people’s lives.
But, here’s the thing, they a very small group.
It’s a shocking, but little-known statistic that 8 per cent of criminals commit 52 per cent of crime.
Criminals like Sonny String, dubbed London’s most notorious phone thief, who is allegedly responsible for 1 per cent of all stolen phones.
We can’t allow this to become the new normal.
It’s obvious that these individuals need to be locked up behind bars for much, much longer so we can protect the public, give communities breathing space and slash crime rates.
We believe in second chances, but not 50th or over 100 chances - that’s madness.
And to lock up these career criminals for longer we need to free up prison capacity.
But right now this Labour Government is flailing around without a clue and has even released dozens of dangerous criminals by accident.
Starmer could free up space by removing the 10,000 foreign national offenders who are clogging up our prisons and costing us thousands of pounds.
He could be forcing countries to take back their nationals by suspending visas or foreign aid for those who don’t cooperate.
But he refuses.
And Labour could reduce the population in prison on remand by maximising court capacity so cases are heard more quickly.
Right now there are 4,500 court days not being used and serious cases like rapes are being pushed back into 2027. Victims are being treated with contempt.
Common sense has gone out the window. It’s time we restored some sanity.
Lock up career criminals for longer, get them off our streets and crush crime.
That’s what the public want, that’s what they deserve and that’s my mission.
