POLICE chiefs will spearhead a debate on tackling Internet crime at a national conference next week.

The Police Superintendents' Association conference will discuss ways of catching perverts and thieves preying on people via the world-wide web when it meets in Wales next Wednesday.

Superintendents from forces including Durham, Northumbria and North Yorkshire will put forward the argument, devised at their regional conference in Durham City earlier this year, that stricter controls are needed to police the web.

The motion put forward by officers from the region will be "this conference believes the Internet should be more actively policed".

Experts from the FBI will fly in to demonstrate how the Internet is monitored in the US.

Officers from the US were instrumental in providing information which led to the arrest of Durham teacher Simeon Hope on child pornography charges.

Hope, 34, of Brandon, was jailed for 18 months earlier this year for downloading thousands of crude images from Internet sites on his computer at his former home in Willington.

Former Sunderland school governor Christopher Lynch, 48, was locked up for six months in March after admitting using his computer to download and send hard-core images of children.

And wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis sufferer Christopher Finn, 33, of South Shields, was given four years in February for downloading and distributing more than 30 images of young boys.

Chief Superintendent Tom Moran, chairman of the association's northern district, has called for criminal use of the Internet to be discussed by senior officers.

With the number of websites world-wide likely to reach 300 million by next year, officers believe steps have to be taken now to tackle offences committed through the Internet.

Computer fraud is costing people thousands of pounds as thieves use credit card numbers sent over the web by customers shopping from home.

Firms targeted by hackers and e-mail viruses are counting the cost of electronic crime.

There have also been cases of cyberstalking, harassment and hate sites pushing extreme right-wing views.

Both Durham and Northumbria forces have specialist units to investigate Internet crime.