Episode 7 Street Patrol UK

Our lives are blighted by antisocial behaviour,

whether it's nuisance neighbours, graffiti on the street,

or too much booze.

I mean, enjoy yourself, have a drink, but don't be a twit all night.

It's all right, darling.

This is the story of police officers, council wardens

and local volunteers whose job it is to keep it off our streets.

It's the person who's having to live next door to it

and having to put up with this. It's just not acceptable.

Welcome to Street Patrol UK.

Coming up on today's programme:

the nuisance neighbours whose terrible behaviour led to

a full-blown police raid.

Police! Stay where you are!

SHOUTING, DOG BARKING

The gang who made their victim's life

so miserable he didn't feel safe leaving the house.

I was given repeated threats of being beaten.

It looked like when he was going into his pocket

he was going to pull a knife at one point.

And Friday night on a city's front line.

You are under the influence of alcohol.

I believe that you are going to continue causing disorder.

Antisocial behaviour and criminal activity often go hand-in-hand,

and it is not uncommon for drugs to be at the root of both.

When there is a drug problem in a local community,

life can soon become intolerable for everybody who lives close by.

In St Helens, Chrissy Nevitt is on the side of ordinary folk.

She works for the council

and spends her time acting on reports of bad behaviour.

And in the space of 12 months,

about 250 of her cases involved antisocial behaviour or drugs.

And when it all happens in a rented property,

it is her job to help landlords deal with their problem tenants.

The types of behaviour

that we deal with in the private rented

sector in terms of antisocial behaviour are

rowdy, inconsiderate behaviour, drinking, drugs, parties, loud music,

things that generally affect a community.

Today, Chrissy is heading to one particular problem house with

Inspector Paul Holden from Merseyside police.

Drugs were recently found at the property.

Not only is it illegal,

but it breaches the property's tenancy agreement.

The landlord wants them evicted, but he lives outside the area,

so it is Chrissy's job to deliver the news.

I always visit the address with a police officer.

The drug activity at the address has been...

You know, it is quite noticeable, or has been quite noticeable.

So obviously that affects residents, and makes residents scared.

They deserve to live in peace and quiet in their own home,

and obviously if it's affecting their quality of life,

they are not getting that peace, are they?

It destroys communities.

You start off with low-level antisocial behaviour,

if you don't nip that in the bud, you very quickly see it escalating.

It turns into criminal damage, fences get smashed,

people's gates, cars get damaged.

The antisocial behaviour side of things is really...

It's critical to getting an effective community that's

happy and content in where they live.

Chrissy and Paul arrive and knock on the door.

It looks like someone's at home, but there's no response.

Well, she hasn't come to the door yet,

so maybe if we can get her son or the other resident here to go

and get her, that would be probably useful, I think.

-How old are you?

-22.

-22. And you live here, don't you?

-Yeah.

Right, OK.

-What's this about?

-Is she in, or is she not?

-What do they want?

-You've just come out the address.

I need to know if she's in.

We're going to serve her with a notice

that she needs to take hold of, that's all.

Nobody is going to get in trouble.

Nobody is getting locked up or anything.

Just need to speak to her, that's all.

Chrissy isn't fazed by this sort of situation.

On average, she serves three or four eviction orders every single month.

We've met before, I'm Chrissy Nevitt from the council.

I've spoken to your landlord following the drugs warrant,

and this is your eviction notice, OK? It's a two weeks' notice, OK?

So you need to start looking for somewhere to live. All right?

On the back of us finding drugs in here,

that breaches your tenancy agreement,

and the landlord wants you out because of that. All right?

-You've now got until the date on that document to leave.

-Right.

Can I also mention, while we're here,

it smells quite strongly of cannabis in here.

-Yes, it does.

-It really does, yeah.

Very much.

Well, as the tenant, you are responsible for what happens here,

as I think I've already explained to you, haven't I?

And it does smell of cannabis here.

Yes, it does.

Well, can you please have a word with them? Because that is illegal.

It's on the back of that that's got you thrown out,

do you know what I mean? So you need to keep a tighter grip

-on what's going on in your house.

-I understand.

You're the adult, you're the occupant,

and it is your tenancy that's being breached

if you are allowing them to possess and smoke cannabis in here.

All right? So, you're going to live somewhere else, the same thing

will happen if you allow that kind of behaviour to carry on.

We've not got a search warrant at the moment,

but on the back of the strength of the smell in here,

I am tempted to go and get one, because I suspect strongly that

we'd be in with a good shout of finding some cannabis in your house.

The woman has a fortnight to vacate the property,

and the authorities will make sure that happens.

But for Paul, there's now a more pressing problem.

Very, very strong smell of cannabis

as soon as you walk through the door.

On the back of that, I've made arrangements with my staff to

go and speak to a magistrate about swearing out a warrant under

the Misuse Of Drugs Act,

and over the next couple of days we'll be looking to

force entry into that address and a thorough

and systematic search to see we can find more drugs at the address.

The fact that they're being evicted

doesn't seem to be having any effect on them.

And just because they're being evicted doesn't mean

we take our foot off the gas. We will keep going.

It's very important to take action against antisocial behaviour,

because it does affect a lot of people.

It's not just one person who can be affected by antisocial behaviour,

it can be a whole street full of people.

And if they are willing to come forward and give us information

that there is antisocial behaviour occurring, then we have a

duty of care to the residents of the borough

to take action on that information.

All this stemmed from neighbours making

a complaint about the family, and it's still far from over.

Paul must now wait to hear whether the magistrates will grant

a warrant to conduct a thorough search of the property.

If you've visited your local town centre recently

late on a Friday or Saturday night, you'll know they can be a hotspot

for antisocial behaviour.

Plenty of young people out enjoying themselves,

but it only takes one to get a little bit too boozed up,

and sparks can start to fly.

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

It's Friday night,

and we're on patrol with police in Gloucester city centre,

when a good night out on the town can quickly end up as

a rude awakening in a police cell.

It's Sergeant Liz Lovell and her team's job to keep those

-levels of enjoyment below fever pitch.

-Way-hey!

Stop here and go and have a quick chat,

and we'll have a little look through.

Liz is in charge of the Licensing Team, whose role it is to stop

antisocial behaviour before it becomes a much more serious crime.

If we find antisocial behaviour on the street, obviously

we have all sorts of ways of dealing with the antisocial behaviour.

It may be that it's just a verbal warning to them.

The levels may be so low that actually they are not causing

any harassment, alarm or distress to anybody.

It's irritating to people, but they're just drunk,

so we accept it a little bit.

The problem is when there's more than one, when we're looking at

two or more people, and then they are all acting antisocially,

then it is slightly intimidating, and that's what we want to prevent.

And it looks like their first prevention of the evening

is about to kick off, right behind them.

Don't do it!

Well, clearly he is going to urinate in public,

so we'll make sure

that we sort this guy out.

-Go inside! Dude, button up. Rich!

-Rich!

GIGGLING

-How many has he drunk tonight?

-Quite a lot.

-Has he?

-About double what I've had.

-How many have you had tonight, then?

Er... Quite a bit.

-Yeah, he's had a lot. What is quite a bit?

-A lot of spirits.

-Right, OK.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Right, Rich, just be careful, you don't

want to end up with a fine tonight. All right?

You are being monitored with the CCTV cameras, all right?

-OK. OK. That's fine.

-We are watching you, we don't want that behaviour.

Because they've got to clean it up, the shopkeepers.

-And it's not fair on them, is it?

-No,

-definitely not. Definitely.

-Definitely.

And you don't want to be out of pocket either, do you, tonight?

-You want to have a good night...

-I've got no money!

If you need to use the toilet, there's one just there at the end.

-Really, dude! In the street like... "Ugh..."

-No, I'm fine.

-And I was like, "Dude, that's a police officer, right there."

-I'm...

-You've got a good mate, there. You should listen to him.

-I don't...

I don't need the toilet.

Right, fine. Fine. Let's just...

-Just make sure you use the toilet, OK?

-Sorry, guys.

Well, Liz and Mark's softly, softly friendly but firm approach seems

to have done the trick and averted some very unwelcome behaviour.

To be fair, you can tell he's a nice kid and he's being opportunistic.

He obviously wants to go to the toilet and he's thinking,

"Oh, I'll just do it round the corner in the doorway of a shop."

The problem we have is those shopkeepers have to clean that up.

It's disgusting, it spreads diseases, all sorts of things.

We do not want that on our street, so luckily he did stop.

He's going to use the toilet, I'm sure, in one of those pubs

just around the corner. He knows CCTV cameras are watching him now.

We don't want to get in a confrontation with him,

but we do want to give him a warning.

The police have their work cut out keeping a lid on a pressure

cooker of the emotions that can bubble over all too quickly,

particularly when alcohol is involved.

Whoops!

Sorry!

And for Liz and Mark, the action just keeps coming.

Oh! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

You deal with him. Are you all right, mate?

-Yeah.

-Are you all right? Is this a domestic, sweetie?

I'm fine. My ex-boyfriend, OK? It's fine.

Right. I need some details from you, OK?

I want to know, obviously, what everything has been about.

Did he actually push you or did you lose your balance?

-No, it's fine.

-Sweetheart, I've got to take your details,

because it is all on camera and I've got to do my job.

Let me do my job as well, all right?

-Are you all right?

-It's fine. Don't worry.

He didn't do anything.

He did, but you slapped him first because I just saw it.

Why did you slap him?

Because he is just an idiot and we're just ex-girlfriend,

boyfriend, whatever.

What we have got here is there has been

a bit of a domestic between ex-partners.

I think she slapped him but he's obviously pushed her away from him

and she has fallen to the floor and lost her balance.

Despite Liz's best efforts to keep the couple separated, it seems

the woman just can't stay away from her ex.

Come up round the corner, sweetie.

-I'm going with him.

-Let me speak to him in private.

-I don't want to speak to him in front of you.

-Why?

Why isn't it just easier if we just go?

I've chatted with him and he doesn't want to go with you.

-Yes, he does.

-No, no.

-No, no. You are causing problems now, sweetheart.

-Why?

-Because you are not doing what we are asking you to do.

-You are not going...

-Why are you being an idiot?

-No, no.

You are not even meant to be here,

you are meant to be around the corner, sweetie.

Come up around the corner and talk to me.

You have been told to walk around the corner, he has gone that way.

We cannot have you both together

-because you have just had an incident.

-It's fine.

We have been together for like three years and after

every time we do this, we're fine.

But tonight, he does not want to talk to you.

No, he says that all the time.

-Well, tonight he doesn't.

-Well, can I just go and talk to him?

No, I am advising you not to.

If you continue to keep going to him, you will have

a Section 27 given to you because you are under the influence of alcohol.

I believe that you are going to continue causing disorder.

PEOPLE SHOUT

That is what I believe,

so I am going to give you a direction to leave

and I am going to give you one now.

But it seems that Liz's directions are falling on deaf ears.

OK, what is happening now is we have asked them both to separate

and go their own ways for tonight.

They don't want to, they may continue to be disorderly later on,

there may be antisocial behaviour caused between the two of them

by shouting and so we are giving her a Section 27 and she will be

told to leave the city, she will be given a map and if she fails...

It is very well behaved around here.

While Liz manages to hang onto her good humour,

despite the rowdy revellers,

Mark gets on with the task of issuing the woman with the order.

A Section 27 notice allows the police to deal with low-level

antisocial behaviour by banning the person from the area

for a specified period without having to arrest them.

I have been good to you because I have given you 12 hours.

That could be 24 hours, OK?

What I am going to do to you now is I'm going to give you this form.

This means you are not allowed back in the city centre for 12 hours.

If you do, you are liable to be arrested. Do you understand me?

-Yes, I understand you.

-You have been acting disorderly,

I have seen you slap somebody tonight, OK?

What you need to do now is go home, find yourself a taxi,

go home, sleep it off, OK?

And go and chat to your guy tomorrow and hopefully you can resolve it.

-Thank you.

-OK? Where's the taxi rank. There you go.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-Bye.

You are keeping the city safe, which is

a massive motivation anyway in itself.

'You can see things improving from the work you do'

and I just enjoy coming in every day really.

'It is fantastic. We love it.

'But it is challenging, you never know where you are going to go to.

'Every job is different,

'every character is different that you deal with,'

and I think it is a really rewarding job.

Most police officers will tell you that they get a lot of job

satisfaction out of the job, so it is pretty good.

And sometimes Liz's friendly approach can lead to

an altogether more unexpected late-night encounter.

No, all my team are here. My team aren't with any of your friends.

OK?

SHE GIGGLES No.

No.

No.

The only way you would see me in the morning is if you get arrested

and I am still dealing with you then.

Seeing a group of teenagers coming towards you in a street

can put a lot of people on edge, especially

if they start mouthing off and shoving each other around.

But have you ever wondered why they are doing it

and what exactly is going through their heads?

Well, now it is time to find out.

16-year-old Anthony's life was made a complete

misery by a group of teenagers, many of whom he didn't even know.

He was verbally threatened, physically attacked by a gang

and felt so badly victimised,

that for months, his life was one long nightmare.

'I felt that my life was in danger to such a degree that leaving'

home would never be an option and to stay at home and just

recluse myself would be the only way to survive the next day.

The intimidation originally started with something really small,

a bit of shoulder barging.

What made everything seem worse for Anthony is that this wasn't

a run in with some older lads, but a bunch of five girls his own age.

If we'd see Anthony by himself

we would just walk past him

and laugh and intimidate him and just walk past him and think

e were like bigger than him, and just make him feel so small.

I used to like walk through the middle of his group,

like sort of separate them, laugh as I walked past. It's like,

he'd be staring at me so I'd stare him back out

and just carry on walking.

I was being

forcefully abused by five girls,

so it was not something

you could comfortably talk about with other people.

For a while, Anthony tried to ignore the low-level

stuff like staring and laughing, but one day,

he couldn't hold back any more and all of a sudden it kicked off.

It got a bit too much for me to just blind eye it,

so I decided to stick up a middle finger, which was not the best

thing to do in hindsight.

Oi! Come here!

Someone said, "Let's get him."

So we all jumped the fence and I ran first and then everyone else

started following and I

jumped on his back and grabbed his hair.

I pulled out a massive clump of his hair.

One of them had grabbed me

by the bag and pulled me down.

I had lost my balance and hit the floor and four of them

-decided to start kicking me repeatedly.

-We got hold of him.

I didn't realise what I was doing because it was happening so quickly.

Then my other friend pulled me off and I just walked out

and I didn't realise until I looked down that

I had some hair in my hand, so I didn't realise what I had done.

I was deeply upset with what happened, I was almost in tears.

It was shaking and when they took pictures of the back of my head

so I could see what happened, it felt as if I had just been

branded to walk anywhere and it is the kid with the bald spots.

I could feel them plainly as if I had been shaved with a razor.

I knew that we would probably have been in a lot of trouble

with what we'd done,

but I didn't think it would have been that serious.

I got arrested and then interviewed and then let out on bail.

Anthony's injuries were so bad, the girls were facing

possible charges of actual bodily harm.

In extreme cases of ABH,

people can be sent to prison for up to five years.

But the police changed tack and took a radically different approach that

actually stop the girls' antisocial behaviour once and for all.

I have been out and about on a street patrol of my own to

hear what bothers you about Britain today. What is your name, buddy?

-It is Miguel.

-Nice to meet you, Miguel. Can I ask how old you are?

-26.

-OK, you look younger, I have got to say.

-Thanks.

-What line of work are you in?

-I am doing construction.

Do you see anything in the construction industry

which is out of order?

Like at school, I do see a lot of bullying.

It doesn't just start in school and stay in school, you know,

it breaks out into work.

Where are you from?

-I am from Poland.

-Lovely.

I am going to ask you to list as many antisocial traits,

things that wind you up.

What really annoys me, I live just down the road and I live

next to the pub and usually over the weekends, people can get so, so loud.

Girls are just as bad as boys.

At least once a month, the police come in just to separate

people, so that really kind of upsets me

because it just kind of shows how bad chemistry between people can

-get sometimes.

-Smashing. It has been lovely meeting you.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheerio.

In this great country of ours, we are

proud of our rich and varied history.

It is what us Brits are known for all around the world,

but believe it or not, there are some individuals out there

who do not share that respect for our heritage.

I tell you what, it makes you ashamed.

For more than 150 years,

Shoreham Fort has stood on the Sussex coastline.

It was built to defend this land from enemy invasion

and it is the last of its kind still standing.

The soldiers are now long gone, but these days it is

staffed by an army of volunteers who are battling a different enemy -

those set on covering these ancient walls with graffiti.

Graffiti is

a very difficult crime to actually catch people for,

and graffiti on heritage sites can cause untold damage.

And for one local resident whose boyhood imagination was

fed by every story held within the ruined stones,

the destruction is devastating.

It's hard to just even put words to it.

These people have defaced something

that we've worked so hard to try and keep.

Shoreham Fort has been a special part of Gary's life

ever since he can remember.

I actually came here when I was four-years-old.

My grandfather brought me here

and I can remember walking around the fort,

running down this bank,

as he walked along the beach like he was a soldier.

I can actually remember using his walking stick as a gun

and pointing the walking stick through the rifle loops

trying to shoot at him like he was a soldier.

But as Gary grew up, it seemed he was the only one who had

a passion for this 155-year-old shell of a fort.

The fort was in pretty dire straits actually,

and parts of it were starting to fall to pieces.

There was no access to the tunnels, er,

underneath the fort, which get to the gun emplacements.

And it was slowly filling up with beach material,

so you could barely see the shape of the fort.

Finally in 2010, on his 30th birthday,

Gary came up with a plan to safeguard the fort's future

by setting up a charity - Friends of Shoreham Fort -

who work tirelessly to preserve the site

and to continue to uncover its hidden past.

He enthuses a lot of other people.

He is a man who can

talk to anybody about this because he is so passionate about it,

and, indeed, we all are.

There's a Martini-Henry Carbine

with the lever action at the back.

In go the rounds, and then pinch fire.

He has researched this site

incredibly and he gives these talks.

And every time I go and listen to him, you learn something new.

He's really made this site come back to life

and his passion, his enthusiasm is infectious.

It was actually believed that Napoleon III sent a spy

to Shoreham Fort.

He looked at the design once he got here,

went back to Napoleon III

and said, "Don't chance it. Go inland."

Which is exactly what Napoleon III did,

starting the Franco-Prussian War.

It's the sort of place

that once you come to, you don't actually leave

because the passion of the history grabs you.

So you could say that it's down to Shoreham Fort

that we're not speaking French.

But it seems all the shared passion

and hard work that's gone into bringing this ancient fort

back to life has not been enough to put off the vicious vandalism

that has stopped this loyal band of volunteers in their tracks.

One summer evening, the newly restored lime mortar walls

were targeted by a graffiti hooligan.

The National Coast Watch,

they called Sussex Police after seeing

a rowdy group down at the fort,

that they felt may have been up to

no good, and felt that it needed a police response down there.

SIREN WAILS

Officers were then dispatched to the fort.

When they arrived,

they found the fort had been graffitied.

They then found someone down there that was there with spray cans.

With that, and the graffiti that was on the fort, he was arrested.

The first reaction was to come down here and see the damage for myself.

When I got down here, it wasn't just graffiti,

these murals were bigger than me in some places,

and I couldn't believe

what lengths people will go to deface our history.

What is really galling

is when all these people are doing all this hard work,

then mindless hooligans

who come along and leave graffiti on heritage sites like this

for some, you know, kick.

It's just crazy.

There's graffiti tags

all over the fort, um,

claiming that it was his right to do so.

Um, and, obviously, that can't be right.

He can do it in his own home if he likes

but to do it on a much-loved ancient monument is clearly wrong.

He was interviewed and then sufficient evidence was gathered

and he was charged with the offence of criminal damage.

Subsequently, he was prosecuted by the courts which was a great

relief to everyone involved.

The 43-year-old vandal was ordered to pay compensation

and costs of £440.

I was absolutely ecstatic that someone was caught doing this.

The police worked so, so hard, and then the community afterwards have

just been so good at trying to protect the fort,

making sure that it's used quite regularly and there's people

here on the site so that this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

What's interesting about sites like this, is when you see them

come back to life and when the local community really

take an interest in it, then the biggest deterrent

for vandals and crooks trying to undermine it,

is usually the community taking ownership of it.

Although the local community around here do call us,

they're not here 24/7, so we do have to keep an eye on what's going on.

Also it's nice for the local community to see the police

taking an interest in the issues that are causing problems for them.

And if people know that we're down here,

they're less likely to come and target the fort for damage,

they're more likely to enjoy the fort for what it is.

So, for today, the fort is safe.

Anti-social behaviour is about a lack of human decency and disrespect

for people around you.

If someone's way of life is making yours a misery,

well, that's about as anti-social as it gets.

But lucky enough for you and me,

there are plenty of people out there that we can turn to.

And this series is their chance to shine.

We are on the front line with the highly-skilled teams

of council workers, police officers and local volunteers

who are committed to keeping our streets safe and clean

and taking on our anti-social battles on a daily basis

to make sure that our lives are not blighted by

other people's bad behaviour.

This is Street Patrol UK.

Thanks everybody for coming this morning.

Back in St Helens, the situation with the nuisance neighbours

has become a lot more serious.

When Chrissy Nevitt, from the council,

visited the tenant to serve her

with an eviction order her suspicions were raised.

It smells quite strongly of cannabis.

Yes, it does.

Drugs have previously been discovered at the address

and neighbours have reported lots of visitors around the clock.

The police inspector, Paul Holden, suspects drug dealing

is taking place and has decided to raid the property.

The purpose of today's operation is to execute a warrant which has been

authorised by St Helens Magistrates' Court under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Obviously if it kicks off... it kicks off.

We've got a team of fully trained officers.

We've got officers trained to force entry,

officers trained in appropriate search techniques.

The residents at the address have dogs -

one of which is quite aggressive.

On the back of that, we've now asked our Merseyside Police dog officers

to come down and support us in the execution of this warrant.

BARKING

So what started as a neighbour's complaint about anti-social

behaviour, has led to a major police operation.

It shows just how seriously the authorities take

complaints from the likes of you and me.

Tackling anti-social behaviour in all forms is

a priority for Merseyside Police.

The confidence in the community suffers

when these kind of drug activities continue.

Crime is disproportionately high in areas of drug supply.

People need to go stealing to feed their drug habits.

We're not going to tolerate it and we're going to tackle it

as soon as we get the information that we need.

The property is just a couple of miles from the police station.

-This one, yeah?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah?

Police, stay where you are! Keep your hands out!

BARKING

-Police!

-Police!

Get hold of your dog. Get hold of your dog!

Offices also head round the back to make sure no-one tries to escape.

BARKING

Didn't know we were coming.

As I say, there's one lad downstairs

and the others were upstairs still in bed.

So a bit of an early morning alarm clock for them unfortunately.

The three occupants that we thought were going to be present

are present, as far as I'm aware.

The house has been secured quite safely.

All officers are safe and well.

The occupants are safe and well.

What'll happen now is everybody will be brought down to

the living room area and it'll be fully explained what'll happen

throughout the course of the morning now.

Careful, Nick. Can you get your dog?

The police now start a full and systematic search of the property.

And they're on the lookout for key items.

The signs of drug dealing that we would be looking for - scales,

bags, papers. We would look for documentary information -

they often have lists of customers, telephones.

Depending on how much we recover,

that'll all unfold over the next couple of hours so we'll find out.

While the search continues,

the local community is informed about today's events.

Part of my approach to Misuse of Drugs Act warrants is

I always get my PCSOs to come down and drop leaflets through

each of the letter boxes.

The purpose of that is to let the community know that

we're acting on the information that they've provided to us,

and to also sort of encourage them to come back with

further information should they come across it.

A member of the public has just stopped me

and said how pleased they are that this activity is under way

today and that they are absolutely delighted that the police

have taken action and that the partners are doing what

they can to evict this family from the address.

They were having to deal with all kinds of callers to the address

all times of day and night, rowdy behaviour, shouting,

swearing as they passed,

groups congregating at the side of the address,

which, as you can see, is a bit of a playing field.

It's just become a bit of a focal point

for various types of groups in the community

impacting on the lives of the other side - the decent people.

Despite a very thorough search of the property,

the police have found no evidence of drug dealing,

but they have uncovered five bags of cannabis

and arrested one man for possession of a controlled drug.

With the police work at the house complete, Chrissy can now

push on with her efforts to stamp out anti-social behaviour here.

Currently the eviction notice is still in place

and that hasn't expired.

When it does, the landlord is actually working with us and he

will apply to court for a possession order to get his property back.

I've advised the tenant of this property

that she needs to start to find somewhere else to live

because this process will go through quite quickly.

So it's just a case of waiting for the notice to expire

and then to apply for possession and for a bailiff's appointment

to get them to be evicted from the property.

What we need to do is find out when they do get evicted,

and where they do end up and then we'll follow them.

And if they carry on at that new address,

we'll just carry on with the enforcement activities.

There are many ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour,

including schemes to try

and persuade people to change their ways rather than punish them.

Now, some people might say that's an easy way out for the offenders

but they can have a very positive and long-lasting result

and, crucially, they can also help the victims.

Teenagers are often blamed for being at the root of a lot

of anti-social behaviour.

Seeing a gang of them on the street, even if they don't approach you,

can be really intimidating.

But for 16-year-old

Anthony from Surrey,

silent threats turned vicious

when he was attacked by a group of teenage girls and badly injured.

The girls were arrested

and were facing possible charges of actual bodily harm.

But instead of calming the situation, everything escalated

and spiralled out of control,

ruining not only Anthony's life, but affecting his whole family.

My brother was out one day,

and a group of lads approached him.

-Hi, mate.

-All right.

-All right, mate?

-How you doing?

I think I recognise you.

-Where are you going? Huh?

-Yeah, mate?

Tell your brother, if we see him, we're going to do him.

Do you understand?

Go on then, off you go.

ANTHONY: 'It was as if the price was on my head.'

Anyone who was a friend of theirs

would just openly say that they were going to get me.

It was not people in the same

age group, it was people much older -

18, 19, maybe 20-year-olds.

Where are you going, bro? Where are you going, bro?

'I was given repeated threats of being beaten.'

Come on then. You're not such a big man now, are you? Huh?

'And at one point, it looked like when he was going to'

his pocket that he was going to pull a knife out.

While Anthony was terrified to even leave the house,

and with the police considering bringing charges,

the full impact of the girls' actions were starting to hit home.

All the respect that my family had for me had gone because of,

like, there were ashamed of me and upset with me for what I'd done.

Doing that, it just created

a whole new image in my mum's mind of what I'm like.

She is violent. She's angry.

What a horrible person, which is

probably what was going through her mind, like, how could she do this?

So I just thought I'd let everyone down.

Instead of charging the girls and sending them

through the whole process and all the expense that entails,

they were given one last chance.

Their case was referred to

the county council's youth support service,

which has an incredible track record

in stamping out anti-social behaviour for good.

The type of crimes that we deal with

range from shoplifting to common assaults to ABHs.

The girls were facing going to court for ABH.

What we as a service were offering would be something different.

Allie started meeting the girls to discuss what they'd done and why.

Although to some people that might sound like a soft option

after all the harm and fear they'd caused, Allie's programme

was about to ram home the fact they needed to change their ways.

The girls were taken into prison to show what their lives could become.

I was quite scared at first because obviously we had to go through

so many different doors to actually get into the prison.

And then once we were in there, we met the prisoners.

It was just a bit like...

Well, like, we should be lucky that we've got what we've got

because they're just sitting in a cell with people they don't know.

It made me realise, like,

I didn't ever want to be put in a situation like that again.

The visit was an eye-opener for the girls and ensured they'll

never behave in such an intimidating way ever again.

And Allie's work didn't end there.

Because Anthony still didn't feel he could leave his own home,

she arranged for him to meet the girls so they could thrash out

their differences and put everything behind them.

Meeting in a circle, not round a table cos that's quite formal.

In the meeting, I didn't know what to expect and I didn't know

if Anthony was going to be upset or angry with us.

ANTHONY: 'It was very scary to think of all the things that happened

'so recently before and then to sit down and talk to you one-to-one.

'You get a feel for'

what they've had to go through

as well as they get a feel of what you've went through.

We asked him what had happened after the incident,

and he told us about not wanting to go out of his house.

We sat back and listened to him

and we were like, "How could we make someone feel like this?"

And we felt so bad and just apologised to him

and kept on apologising cos we feel so bad towards him.

And to hear that was a real weight off my shoulders

because I didn't have to feel so scared because

if it could all be talked out, then surely the repercussions would end.

-ALLIE:

-It was like a moment of release and relief

that had left his body and I actually

'said, "I can see that you feel a bit better about what's happened."'

We hurt him, we upset him, we scared him,

we stopped him from wanting to leave his house

so no-one should have been put through that, so he shouldn't,

so I feel really sorry for, like, what I did to him

and what my actions made him feel like.

We didn't know him before so we didn't know

what he was like, and he is actually a nice lad.

He's understanding, and he listened to us,

and he was smiling and gave us eye contact, which kind of

reassured us that he is a nice person. And, obviously, we didn't

know him before and now that we do know him,

he is just a genuinely nice person.

Allie has helped me get my life back because I now can go out.

I can be sociable and no-one talks about it any more.

Avoiding the judicial system may seem like an easy way out

for the people who cause so much fear and intimidation.

But the youth support service worked to change their behaviour

and, importantly, it made a victim feel safe again.

It also saved the huge cost of a court process

and the potential extra expense of putting people in prison.

Since we've filmed with our anti-social saviours,

we've got some updates for you.

In St Helens, the eviction date has passed

and the problem family has failed to vacate the property.

The landlord is hoping to get a possession order

from the courts to have them forcibly removed,

unless, of course, they leave of their own accord first.

And their behaviour still leaves a lot to be desired.

Their neighbours have since made a number of complaints.

Meanwhile, the young man who was arrested for possession

of cannabis was given a caution by police.

In Surrey, life has completely changed for young Anthony.

He's being left alone by all the people who were giving him grief

and says he's now got his old life back.

In Sussex, the local police

continue to patrol the area around Shoreham Fort and it's working.

There have been no further incidents of damage or desecration.

And in Gloucester, Sergeant Liz

and the rest of her team are out patrolling the city centre,

keeping the streets safe for all

and removing anyone likely to cause public disorder.

And Liz does it all with her admirable sense of humour.

Good on you, Liz!

That's your lot for today, thanks for watching.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.