Getting tough on petty crime

Elish Angiolini said people who commit acts such as urinating in the street and vandalism will be hit with new fines within days of the crime - while courts will be freed up to deal swiftly with offenders responsible for "one-man crime waves".

In her first interview since she was chosen on Thursday to replace Lord Boyd, QC, as Scotland's top prosecutor, Ms Angiolini told The Scotsman she would bring prosecutors closer to people living in communities blighted by anti-social behaviour who, she acknowledged, have lost confidence in the criminal justice system.

She said: "You cannot devise what is in the public interest in the cosy cocoon of an office. You need to be out there, need to be exposed to the communities who are actually suffering.

"There is nothing more instrumental for a prosecutor - who may consider murder as the most serious case which requires very close consideration and urinating up someone's close as at the minor end - to actually go into that close and see what it's like, to live with the smells, with the fact when you have kept a nice garden box someone is using it to dump empty cans.

"That type of anti-social behaviour and quality-of-life crime is what really corrodes the confidence of many communities and makes life utterly unbearable.

"What we need to do now is have a summary justice that is problem-solving in its approach. That has already started with youth courts, domestic courts, drugs courts, but we need to look at how we can make the community feel the current criminal justice system is there to serve them and is responsive to them.

"While the criminal justice system must be independent, that does not mean it has to be isolated. Independence which requires isolation is a very immature view of independence."

Her commitment to tackling anti-social behaviour will be welcomed by Jack McConnell, the First Minister, and Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, who have come under fire for failing to meet targets to reduce the number of persistent young offenders.

In 2005-6, the number of persistent young offenders recorded was 1,338 - up 10 per cent on the previous year's figure of 1,260 and 16 per cent higher than the 1,201 in 2003-4.

Ministers have repeatedly accused councils of not imposing enough anti-social behaviour orders on serious troublemakers. Since 2004, six dispersal orders, banning groups from gathering in certain areas, have been issued and last year 169 ASBOs were applied.

Ms Angiolini, who has still to be formally sworn in as Lord Advocate, said major reforms to speed up justice would free the hand of prosecutors to target persistent offenders causing the bulk of anti-social behaviour.

Under the new Criminal Proceedings Bill, the maximum fine fiscals can impose on offenders will be raised from 100 to 500. New compensation orders will also be introduced, allowing fiscals to require a minor offender to pay compensation of up to 5,000 to their victim without the case coming to court.

These measures, she said, will "allow prosecutors to be much more creative" and allow for the "court's energies to be targeted on the persistent offender, the one-man crime wave, or one-woman crime wave, who we know have disproportionate effect on the local community".

The fines would also enable those who "take a tentative step into criminality" to face justice more quickly.

"It is something of a legal cliche that justice delayed is justice denied. The importance not just for victims but also for accused of bringing the disposal of the case close to the actual event brings home to them the fact this is serious and emphasises the need for change.

"If you have that disposal 18 months down the line, it does not allow accused to reflect more closely. If you have a fiscal fine, ensuring that is imposed within days or weeks of the event where someone pleads guilty, that becomes much more possible."

She said changes to the management of High Court cases, which have slashed delays and led to a 70 per cent fall in the number of witnesses called to court, would be extended to the sheriff courts, with trials in absence being permitted in summary cases if the accused fails to appear and the court considers it in the interests of justice.

Other changes include giving fiscals the power to apply to the court to "roll up" all outstanding fines against an individual into one single case, even if the charges are from different sheriffdoms - ensuring better use of court time and resources.

"The new reforms will really shake up summary justice in such a way as to remove the delays and the artificial situation which persists where the accused pleads not guilty at the first, second and third trial diet, before pleading guilty at the fourth diet 14 months down the line," she said.

The impact of such abuse of the system, she said, was "totally unacceptable".

But Margaret Mitchell, the justice spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, last night voiced concern about giving prosecutors more power to dispense justice.

"It is very rare that 500 fines are given out in the district court, and they can sometimes deal with some bad assaults," she said. "I wouldn't want the message going out to the victims that these crimes are being pushed aside. It's important to many of them that the criminal is brought to court."

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish National Party's justice spokesman, welcomed Ms Angiolini's pledge to target anti-social behaviour. "I think she is quite right," he said, adding that we need to inculcate "a culture of responsibility. People have to recognise they have responsibilities as well as rights.

"Summary justice has to live up to its name. We have to ensure basic legal rights are protected, but also that crimes are dealt with speedily and efficiently.

"The system has to work much faster and with less complexity than it does."