‘I’ve gone shopping with my mum’ - how criminals are avoiding unpaid work in Norfolk and Suffolk

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has now ordered the company running community punishment in Norfolk and Suffolk to improve after a review was carried out in July.

Unpaid work, which includes offenders guilty of crimes from drink driving to assault removing graffiti and tidying up wasteland, was contracted by the government last year to Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs).

The CRC for Norfolk and Suffolk is run by a French company, called Sodexo, but Ministry of Justice figures show the system is performing worse here than anywhere else in the country.

Our investigation has found some criminals given unpaid work may be avoiding punishment and other problems, including:

•One criminal managed to avoid doing unpaid work by saying he had gone shopping with his mum;

•Up to 120 criminals being assigned to one case officer;

•One offender not showing up on 41 occasions;

The MoJ said it had told Norfolk and Suffolk's CRC to put an action plan in place to improve. The CRC said its performance had now 'improved significantly'.

Judge Stephen Holt has said courts are avoiding punishing criminals with unpaid work because the offenders are not being supervised properly. Photo: Steve Adams (Image: Copyright Archant Norfolk 2015)

But on Friday, August 19, Recorder of Norwich Judge Stephen Holt said in Norwich Crown Court that the system was in trouble.

'We are having real problems with the supervision of unpaid work,' he said.

He told the court judges were staying away from imposing unpaid work because they felt the criminals were not being supervised enough.

A CRC worker in court told Judge Holt that they had to deal with up to 120 offenders per officer. Under the old system the figure was 40 to 50 per officer.

Community payback schemes were privatised by the Government last year. In Norfolk and Suffolk they are run by a French services firm called Sodexo along with crime reduction charity Narco. (Image: Submitted)

Judge Holt also said there were cases where criminals had not turned up to do their unpaid work but no breach proceedings had been triggered by the CRC.

And this newspaper has learned that on one occasion an offender did not turn up for unpaid work because he said he was shopping with his mum.

The CRC classed that excuse as 'acceptable'.

The National Audit Office published a report in April into CRCs which found there was 'an inherent risk that offender managers may avoid 'breaching' offenders' as this could affect targets.

Government funding to CRCs is dependent on them hitting their targets. Their contract states they have to hit target by February 2017.

Another case was heard at Norwich Crown Court where the offender had not shown up to do unpaid work on 41 occasions.

All of his absences were classified as 'unacceptable' meaning he could give no reason for skipping his punishment.

One judge at Norwich Crown Court has designed a form for Norfolk and Suffolk CRC to fill in to record how many hours of unpaid work the offender has actually done.

Norfolk and Suffolk was the worst performing CRC in the country in five out of 15 measures which the MoJ uses to monitor them, according to the latest available figures which cover January to March this year.

It was the second worst in the country on two further measures.

The figures show:

•Norfolk and Suffolk CRC is referring just 11pc of cases on time where offenders breach the terms of their community punishment. The target is 95pc.

•Nine per cent of offenders are starting unpaid work within a week of being allocated. The target is 75pc.

•Only 37pc of offenders are initially being contacted on time by the CRC after being sentenced. The target is 97pc.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'We hold providers rigorously to account for their performance and insisted a robust action plan was developed by Norfolk and Suffolk CRC.

'We have already seen signs of improvement but will continue to monitor performance closely.'

A Norfolk and Suffolk CRC spokesperson said: 'Our performance has improved significantly in the last few months.

'Since July, 94pc of community service orders have started within seven days and our staff are delivering high-quality super-vision for projects that benefit the community and offender rehabilitation.

'We continue to work closely with local judges to support greater confidence in community service as a sentencing option.'

•What are CRCs?

Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) were introduced in 2014 as part of the privatisation of Britain's probation service.

They were introduced by the then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling under the Offender Rehabilitation Act.

French service company Sodexo and crime reduction charity Nacro were awarded the contract to run Norfolk and Suffolk CRC from February 2015.

They were also given the contract for Cambridgeshire and Essex.

Their role is to reduce reoffending and to protect the public by supervising unpaid work.

But CRCs were criticised in May this year by the independent Parliamentary spending watchdog, the National Audit Office.

It warned that the government had no way of knowing how well CRCs were performing because of a failure to collect accurate information.

The report also warned CRCs could withhold data or even manipulate it.

It added that the private firms running CRCs could put financial profit above public safety.

•Who gets unpaid work?

CRCs are in charge of community punishment for low and medium risk offenders.

They run unpaid work schemes, also called 'community payback', which can include decorating buildings, tidying up wasteland or removing graffiti.

Examples of community payback schemes in Norfolk in the past have included fixing the BMX track at Ditchingham and tidying up an orchard in Swaffham.

A judge or magistrate can give unpaid work for a huge range of offences from benefit fraud to assault.

Recent examples of people being given unpaid work in Norfolk include:

Former West Norfolk councillor Peter Colvin who was convicted in July of drink-driving. He was given 150 hours on unpaid work;

Andrew Stebbing, an engineer for Oulton Broad, who failed to pay more than £100,000 in tax over eight years.

He was given 120 hours of unpaid work in August.

Matthew Watling, from Happisburgh, who assaulted a man on Norwich's Prince of Wales Road. He was ordered in July to do 250 hours of unpaid work.

• Do you have a story for the Investigations Unit? Email tom.bristow@archant.co.uk

• An earlier version of this article stated Narco was the name of crime reduction charity Sodexo was working with. The correct name is Nacro. We apologise for any confusion.