9/1/04
Children as young as seven years of age have been used to crawl through pet doors to gain entry to a house before stripping the home of valuables, according to Police Minister Michelle Roberts.
Mrs Roberts said the children were given 'shopping lists' of what items to remove from the home.
As part of the State Government's battle against burglary, the Minister today announced the introduction of new laws to target people who use young children to commit crimes.
The Minister said the 'Fagin laws' would ensure that people who attempted to elude the justice system by using young children as pawns would be suitably punished with a lengthy gaol term of up to 14 years.
"It is a despicable act by unscrupulous people who stoop to use young children to commit crimes like this," she said.
"Sadly it is not isolated and police intelligence shows that children are increasingly being recruited by adults to carry out burglary and theft offences.
"In fact nearly half of all the offences dealt with by the Children's Court in 2001 involved these types of crimes."
The Minister said the new laws, which involved amendments to the Criminal Code, would have a two-tiered structure providing different gaol terms, depending on the age of the children manipulated into committing crime.
"Selfish and irresponsible people have introduced these children to a life of crime without any care or consideration and they deserve nothing less than a lengthy gaol term," she said.
"Those people who procure children between 10 and 17 years of age will be charged with a new offence and they will face a seven-year gaol term.
"But this will be doubled - up to 14 years - for those people who procure young children under 10 years of age."
Mrs Roberts said the 'Fagin Laws' were part of a comprehensive anti-burglary legislative package that the State Government planned to introduce into Parliament early this year.
She said the laws would include:
- increased penalties for breaches of the Pawnbrokers and Secondhand Dealers Act and the introduction of new measures requiring suspicious behaviour to be reported to police;
- introduction of more stringent reporting conditions on the sale of second-hand goods;
- increased police powers for police to raid 'drug houses' where stolen property was exchanged for drugs; and
- introduction penalties for people who amended/changed the identification numbers on goods.
Mrs Roberts said the new anti-burglary laws would complement the recent achievements made by the State Government in combating this crime.
"Reducing burglaries has been a priority in our Government's community safety program," she said.
"Through the introduction of the $20million DNA program, new fingerprint matching techniques, police operations and campaigns like Burglar Beware, the results are starting to show and burglary is trending downwards.
"Recent police statistics show nearly a 12 per cent drop in burglaries throughout the metropolitan area.
"This is very encouraging and increases our Government's resolve to find new programs, new initiatives and new laws to stop this crime and to make our communities safer and more secure."
Minister's office: 9213 6600
