Hartlepool Car Crime

"Could you tell me the age of the youngest person to be caught by police stealing a car in Hartlepool and a breakdown of number of under 17 year olds caught stealing vehicles.

Could you give me the information of each of the last three years"?

A: During the last three years Cleveland Police have changed their custody handling system across the force, this was phased in over a number of months, Hartlepool being the first to convert.

The new system allows relatively easy search facilities in relation to the aspects of your request but only from 01.01.2006, below are the requested figures from that date up to 15.06.2007.

The majority of the figures prior to this date are held on the old custody handling system. These are not as user-friendly in terms of search and retrieval and, as such, the older information that you require is very labour intensive in its recovery.

Therefore, will the below information be sufficient for your needs or do you require me to instigate further research in relation to this request? I await your instruction at the earliest instance.

We have taken “caught” to mean arrested and searched on the offences of:

“Theft of Motor vehicle”

“Unlawful taking of Motor vehicle” and

“Aggravated taking of a Motor vehicle”.

Youngest 2006 – 11 years
Youngest 2007 - 13 years

2006 – 1 @ 11, 3@ 13, 4@ 14, 15@ 15 and 21@ 17.
2007 - 2@ 13, 5@ 14, 11@ 15 and 7@ 16.

Cleveland Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections 1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, the rights of the copyright owner will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of the disclosed information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, Cleveland Police Headquarters, PO Box 70, Ladgate Lane, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS8 9EH.

Yours sincerely,

Jim Conlin
FOI Decision Maker
Public Information Unit