THOUSANDS of pounds of dirty money seized from drugs dealers and thieves is to be given to a pioneering York group that strives to keep the streets clean of career criminals.

The Evening Press today reveals the stories of two former drug addicts and serial offenders, responsible for hundreds of crimes in the city, whose lives have been turned around by the York Persistent Offender Project.

They tell how the team, which works to break the cycle of offending among experienced criminals through intensive surveillance and drug testing, has helped them turn their backs on crime for the first time.

The project, which enjoyed startling success in its first six months when the number of burglaries in York dropped by a third, has been handed £28,000 from a Government fund of assets recovered from crime.

Two weaned off crime

The Persistent Offender Project has been in action for less than a year, but it has already achieved startling results.

Crime Reporter CHRIS GREENWOOD looks at two lives that have been touched by its work.

LIFE was not great for John when he was sent to prison for burglary in 1991, but things got a whole lot worse when he got out and started taking heroin.

What had started out as a few burglaries to bring in a few hundred pounds three years earlier when his girlfriend was pregnant and money was thin, became a decline into serious crime and addiction.

Businesses and warehouses became targets, he started smash-and-grabs and dozens of crimes were committed to feed a £1,000-a-week heroin habit that left him sick, isolated and depressed.

He was caught on several occasions and sent to prison, but on release he lapsed back into crime, sometimes within days. It was a cycle that continued for 13 years until he joined the persistent offenders project.

"For 12 or 13 years of my life it was just a cycle of crime, drugs, prison, getting out and then doing it all again," he said. "Sometimes I was offending within three days of prison, the more drugs you do the more risks you take."

Another man, Stephen, who is just 21, has a criminal career of car theft and burglaries that already spans eight years and a hard drug habit that saw him consuming up to £2,000 of heroin, crack and cocaine each week.

Jail didn't help. He just got drugs sent in and when he left he was hungry for more, paid for with the proceeds of hundreds of crimes. "I was offending every day and taking coke, crack and heroin that was costing me at least £2,000 a week. I was operating with three others before I was caught again and sentenced to 23 months," he said.

The unit has turned round the lives of both men. John, now 35, has been clean of drugs and crime for nine months. He started a further education course and is regularly seeing his three young children.

Stephen, who is working full time, can now sit down with his father for the first time and talk about his past behaviour. He is also visiting schools to give informal educational talks about his experiences.

He said: "If it wasn't for the support, I would be committing more crimes now. I would be on drugs. Instead, I'm starting to get respect from my parents again."

Probation officer Michael Pavlovic said the two men were some of the success stories of the unit, which has treated 15 people since it began last November.

The unit targets those who commit burglaries and robberies, crimes that have a high impact on their victims, and aims to reintegrate offenders into their own community through close supervision, counselling, drug treatment and testing.

An extra £28,000 of funding is being ploughed into extra drug testing, a clinical nurse to work with mental health issues and accessing drug treatment with groups such as Compass.

Mr Pavlovic said: "It's a lonely and daunting experience.

"We're hoping that people will not only recognise that there is an alternative, but that they do not have to be out there on their own."

Updated: 10:50 Friday, October 10, 2003