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Friday, January 2, 1998 Published at 17:18 GMT

Criminals threatened with driving bans
image: [ The pilot projects are to test the powers outlined in Jack Straw's Crimes Act ]

The pilot projects are to test the powers outlined in Jack Straw's Crimes Act

Criminals who have never committed a motoring offence could lose their driving licences as part of tough new powers for magistrates.

Justices of the Peace in the two pilot areas, Norfolk and Greater Manchester, will be able to disqualify crooks, including fine-defaulters, from driving.

Under the scheme introduced on Friday, they will also be able to slap curfew orders on children as young as 10 and order persistent petty offenders to do community service work.

The pilot projects are designed to test the provisions set out by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, in the 1997 Crime (Sentences) Act.

Courts will be allowed to:

Ban any offenders from driving

Impose curfew orders on children, aged 10 to 15, enforceable through electronic tagging

Make persistent low level offenders do up to 240 hours of community service work and obey curfews, again monitored electronically

Force fine defaulters to carry out community service work or take their driving licences away.

Home Office Minister Joyce Quin said: "Community punishments are rigorous, effective and can reduce crime.

"This is why they lie at the heart of our strategy for the criminal justice system."

[ image: Norfolk magistrate Jenny Matthews]
Norfolk magistrate Jenny Matthews
While the pilot projects went into effect on Friday, the electronic tagging trials will not come into effect until April, in the case of Norfolk, or July, in the case of Manchester.

Norfolk magistrate, Jenny Matthews, welcomed the new powers and denied they were "Draconian".

She said: "As magistrates, we always like to have a very wide range of sentencing options and this will be an option which will fit in to what we are able to do.

"This may not be suitable for everyone but it may well find a place in the range of sentences."

Ms Matthews said magistrates would have discretion to use the driving ban but in practice, she predicted, it would only be suitable for those who had committed more serious offences.

She added: "We would not be looking to deprive somebody of their likelihood, that would be extremely Draconian.

"We may well be imposing on them some hardship, which is the penalty for the crime they have committed."


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