£1 million worth of free work carried out by offenders (From York Press)

£1 million worth of free work carried out by offenders

7:59am Monday 18th February 2013 in News By Kate Liptrot, kate.liptrot@thepress.co.uk

NEARLY £1 million of free labour – equalling more than 125,000 hours of work – has been carried out in York and North Yorkshire by offenders working on community payback schemes.

Criminals carried out more than £930,000 worth of work with over 900 offenders successfully completing community payback on about 150 projects in 2012, according to the Probation Trust.

Projects have included working with Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS) in York, painting street furniture in Northallerton and supporting Scarborough and Filey In Bloom.

Offenders renovated local church halls, worked for parish councils, local authorities and many registered charities, a spokesman said.

Mike Ryan, director for York and North Yorkshire Probation Trust, said: “Over the last year our community payback teams have once again demonstrated resilience, commitment and professional skills in managing offenders in the community.

"The variety of projects they undertake is vast and varied – from supporting local charity shops, to helping schools, and churches and local community groups across the county.

“In order to deliver more than 125,000 hours of community payback, against a backdrop of continuing public sector cuts and a need to drive further efficiency savings, our teams have concentrated closely on ensuring that the end product continues to be of high quality and meets the needs of our many beneficiaries.”

In York and North Yorkshire community payback – work carried out by criminals as part of their community sentence – aims to make sure offenders are visibly punished and repay society for their crimes.

They are expected to arrive for work on time and carry out whatever jobs are assigned and the work is often outside and must be completed whatever the weather.

For more information on Community Payback locally or to nominate a project visit www.ynyprobation.co.uk