'Wipe slate clean' offenders told

Criminals are being encouraged by a new police unit to come clean about other offences when in custody.

Some 400 offences have been solved in Oxfordshire through the work of the Persistent Offender Intervention Team.

Thames Valley Police say that under the scheme, set up in April, criminals can "wipe the slate clean" and will not have their sentence increased.

The force says the new unit has already led to savings for taxpayers as each crime costs around £900 to investigate.

Prisons visited

A similar scheme has been run successfully in Reading for a number of years.

Officers interview two or three prisoners per week and are now planning to visit prisons across the country where offenders from Oxford are on remand.

Det Con Paul Sexton, who runs the Persistent Offender Intervention Team with Det Con Rod Rhymes, said: "There was a need for a specialist intervention unit as many detections were not being made due to the very small window of opportunity when an offender is able to admit and ask for them to be taken into consideration.

"People like to know if their crime has been solved.

"If my house was burgled it would be nice to know the culprits had been arrested."