Metro vandals pay their debt to Nexus 

 

Railway vandals in Gateshead are carrying out unpaid work for Metro operator Nexus as part of a new scheme to hand railway vandals a more appropriate form of punishment.

The scheme has been piloted by the Gateshead Young Offending Team  and so far five offenders ordered by the courts to do community service have worked on the new scheme with Nexus.

The young people received referral orders in court and had to attend youth offender panels where a representative from Nexus attended as the victim and asked the young persons direct to carry out work for them and to complete educational work around train safety. 

The offenders, who can’t be named for legal reasons, have each spent two hours at the Metro’s depot in Gosforth, Newcastle, last week washing the company’s fleet of vans. The teenagers had been convicted of criminal damage on the Metro system, including graffiti attacks, by magistrates.

Gateshead Council cabinet member for children and young people, Councillor Catherine Donovan, said, "Children and young people in Gateshead make a tremendous contribution to the life of our community and it is important that the small number who do get into trouble are dealt with quickly and effectively and helped to avoid further offences that may jeopardise their futures.

"Young offenders making amends directly to the people affected by their actions helps to reduce the fear of crime and gives young people a greater ownership and appreciation of public property.  Public transport around the country is often affected by anti-social behaviour and we hope schemes like this have an impact on young people guilty of doing so."

Gateshead Youth Offending Team is the first in the North East to send its young offenders to serve a community punishment with Nexus and it is hoped other young offending teams in Tyneside and Wearside will follow suit.

Director of Metro Ken Mackay said: "These two youths deliberately damaged property on the Metro network so it was only right that they came in and did their community punishment with us. I now hope that they have learned their lesson.

"It's quite simple, vandalism won't be tolerated on the Metro system and this shows that anyone caught damaging our property will be prosecuted through the courts and they will be punished."

Nexus' Graffiti Supervisor and Co-ordinator, Steve Hunt, said: "This was a very appropriate form of punishment as these youngsters both targeted Metro property. Having the young offenders in means they can pay us back directly and we can save our staff a lot of valuable time on some of the more mundane jobs we have to do, week in week out.

"I was delighted the courts agreed to send them to us, under close supervision, and we are hopeful this can be rolled out in the New Year with other areas coming on board."