29K criminals escape with a caution including robbers, rapists and drug traffickers- And that’s just in London

Posted by GLA Conservatives in Blog   Share2013

May
13

28,998 cautions were handed to criminals in private by the Met (the UK’s biggest police force) in 2012/13 – a quarter* of all solved crimes in London. Almost 500 robbers, rapists and drug traffickers escaped justice.

According to Met figures exclusively obtained by London Assembly Member Tony Arbour;
· 5,843 criminals have been let off by the police for violent attacks with injury
· 180 cautioned for GBH/wounding
· 131 robbers have avoided punishment with a caution
· 318 offenders have escaped justice for drug trafficking
· 165 cautions have been handed out for sexual offences
· 5 rapists were handed a caution

Nationally, there were 205,700 cautions handed out in the 12 months ending September 2012 according to the Ministry of Justice.

Tony Arbour said: “The whole point of the British legal system is that justice should be seen to be done. However, a quarter of all solved crimes in London escape punishment. The 29,000 cautions and youth warnings given out in private during the last year demonstrate that criminals are getting away with increasingly serious crimes. The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service ) is not doing Londoners a service by allowing people who admit their guilt not to go to court. It is frustrating for police officers to find that time spent trawling through evidence and catching criminals is ultimately wasted because villains are not brought to justice. It is unfair on victims, and the fact that a law-abiding resident will receive the same or even worse punishment for minor traffic offences as drug traffickers, robbers and rapists is simply outrageous.”

Notes:
*There were 842,447 recorded crimes in London in 2012/13. The average detection rate was 14% totalling an estimated 117,942 solved crimes (http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/metropolitan-police-service-recorded-crime-figures-and-associated-data).