SHOCK crime figures released by the Home Office yesterday show that the North-East is one of the worst areas in the country for repeat offending.

Teesside has more persistent criminals per head of population than anywhere else in Britain, outside London - with almost 850 persistent offenders responsible for thousands of crimes.

Each has committed at least six crimes in the past year - including shoplifters and smash-and-grab thieves targeting cars.

Cleveland Chief Constable Barry Shaw, who retires as chief constable in the spring, said the figure should not be seen in a negative light, but as a good performance indicator.

"What this report illustrates is Cleveland Police is better than anybody for taking persistent offenders to court," he maintained.

Councillor Dave McLuckie, lead member for community safety with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said that with successful operations, such as the dealer-a-day anti-drugs crackdown, Teesside is a victim of its own success.

Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said that while police were "on the ball, detecting crime", the courts were handing out "inappropriate sentences" .

Middlesbrough Labour MP Stuart Bell is taking the matter up with Home Secretary David Blunkett, who is behind a national reform of the Criminal Justice System.

Teesside magistrate and Cleveland Police Authority member Alf Illingworth said that those reforms were doomed to failure if they were not backed with the proper resources.

"We cannot keep up with the workload on the courts now and this will not succeed unless the resources needed are applied to it," he said.

We will behave - youngsters sign an agreement

Three 12-year-olds from Redcar have signed anti-social behaviour agreements in a bid to stop them causing mayhem on the streets.

The friends, members of a gang on the resort's troubled Lakes Estate, have among other things thrown stones and mud at pensioners and asylum seekers.

If they offend again, they risk being taken to court where anti-social behaviour orders could be imposed with a risk their families might lose their homes.

Another seven gang members face signing up to the same agreements, which have already been signed by 29 other children across east Middlesbrough and east Cleveland.

Nathan Patton, 16, from Hemlington, was this month given a 12-month detention order for breaches of an anti-social behaviour order. The court heard he was responsible for driving 20 families from their homes.