HOME Office Minister Vernon Coaker was in the region yesterday to see for himself how one town is leading the way in the fight against crime.

Mr Coaker met offenders, police and community beat officers on a tour of Stockton, where crime has fallen 14 per cent in the past year.

He spoke with offenders on the community payback scheme, who were removing graffiti in the Oxbridge area of the town, and went to the new Safer Stockton Partnership office, based in the town's police station.

There, Stockton Borough Council's community safety team and Cleveland Police's neighbourhood policing team work side-by-side to combat anti-social behaviour and street crime.

"The latest figures show there has been a 14 per cent fall in crime in Stockton, which is really good, but it does not happen by itself," said Mr Coaker.

"It happens through effective work by people and I wanted to come to Stockton to see where there were examples of good practice."

He said there were many reasons for the fall in crime, but among them was the Safer Stockton Partnership, which had brought a number of teams together in the fight against crime.

He said their joint approach to tackling anti-social behaviour, drugs and street crime had given them increased strength and had offered greater support to those committing the offences.

And he said offering a number of alternatives for dealing with offenders, such as the community payback scheme, meant individuals could be given the punishment most suitable to them.

"I think it has helped people to stop re-offending," said the minister. "We judge every individual by the way they respond and react. Community payback works for some people, but if it doesn't, then you have to work out some other form of action.

"We want to keep people on the right side of the law."

Salesman Philip White, 27, from Stockton, was helping to clean graffiti on a subway near Light Pipe Hall Road, Stockton.

He said he was given 120 hours' community service after being convicted for a second time of drink-driving.

Wearing his compulsory luminous green jacket, he said: "I knew I was going to get community service, but I was still devastated. I did the crime though, so they had to give me something.

"Getting here is the hardest thing - once I'm here, it's fine.

"It's a good way of punishing people. We are cleaning up the area we live in, which has to be a good thing. I definitely won't drink and drive again. It was a stupid thing to do."