Page 30 Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019
Rise of county lines drug
gangs sees number of
teens in care soar by 20%
By Steve Doughty
Social Affairs CorrespondentTHE number of teenagers
under state care has shot
up due to the rise of crimi-
nal gangs and drugs, it was
revealed yesterday.
The count of children aged
over 13 living in homes or with
foster parents rose more than
a fifth in five years, the Chil-
dren’s Commissioner said.
Among key reasons for the
surge was the disruption brought
by the growth of gang culture
such as the county lines drug
dealing trade.
The report by the commissioner
for England, Anne Longfield,
found the number of children
over 13 in the state care system
went up by 21 per cent between2013 and 2018. Meanwhile the
number of young children aged
five and under fell by 15 per cent.
The biggest increase was among
teenagers over 16, rising by 25
per cent between 2014 and 2018.
Older children in care included
asylum seekers under 18 as well
as those affected by family and
gang pressures.
County lines cases are a grow-
ing issue, with city gangs expand-
ing their operations into townsand often using vulnerable young
people to move and sell narcotics.
Social workers are dealing ‘with
growth of teenagers being taken into
care because they are experiencing
issues such as criminal or sexual
exploitation, going missing from
home, and parents being unable to
protect them’, the report said.
It added that the greater needs
and vulnerability of older teenagers- including those committed to the
care system after sentencing by
criminal courts – meant they are
much more likely to be living in
institutional homes rather than
with foster parents.
The document said: ‘Changes over
the last five years have transformed
the children’s care model from one
based on very young children living
in foster homes to one where more
and more older children are enter-
ing care and needing more special-
ist homes.’ There were 21,430 chil-
dren aged 12 to 15 among the 75,420
in the English care system at the
end of March 2018, Whitehall figures
‘The care system is
playing catch up’Labour anti-Semitism
‘fuels UK hate record’
ATTACKS against British Jews By Sophie Borland
have soared to record levels, a
charity warned yesterday.
A total of 892 anti-Semitism inci-
dents were reported in the first six
months of the year to the Commu-
nity Security Trust – 10 per cent
more than the total recorded for
the whole of 2018, and the highest
for any six-month period.
The charity, which protects the
Jewish community, said the rise
partly reflected the news being
dominated by anti-Semitism in the
Labour Party, which had prompted
others to carry out copycat abuse,
usually name-calling and racist
posts on social media sites.
By comparison, 810 anti-Semitic
incidents were reported to the char-
ity during 2018 as a whole.
Chief executive David Delew said:
‘The problem is spreading acrossthe country and online, it reflects
deepening divisions in our society
and it is causing increasing anxiety
in the Jewish community.’
He added: ‘It will take people of all
communities and backgrounds
standing together to turn this tide
of hate around.’
Part of the increase is likely to be
explained by improved recording of
incidents and victims being more
willing to come forward.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark
Hamilton, the National Police
Chiefs’ Council spokesman on hate
crime, said: ‘There are still far too
many who are prepared to act ille-
gally, fuelled by global events, divi-
sions in society or bigoted ideolo-
gies. It is always concerning to see
indicators of increased hate crime.’Ringleader’s
Rolexes to
be auctioned
FLASHY watches worth £27,000
and a collection of designer
trainers costing nearly £13,000
are just some of the goods
seized from a prolific county
lines drug dealer.
Stefan Miller, 30, lived in
Wandsworth, London, but was
the ringleader of an operation
using boys aged 14 to 16 as
‘drug runners’ around Glouces-
tershire. He made £175,000
from dealing and spent his
money on items including
Rolexes and 44 pairs of shoes
by designers including Dolce &
Gabanna and Gucci. One of the
watches, an 18 carat Rose Gold
Daytona, was worth £27,450.
Miller, who was jailed for 11
years in March, was found to
possess more than £100,000
worth of heroin and crack
cocaine. He appeared before
Gloucester Crown Court, where
he admitted conspiracy to sup-
ply the drugs. He was also con-
victed of possession of class A
drugs with intent to supply.
His total realisable assets,
worth £63,594.80, have now
been confiscated by police and
the items will be sold at auc-
tion on August 14.Seized: A £27,450 Daytonalead to them repeatedly relocating.
Over three years, it said, just over
half of children in care moved home
at least once, and one in ten moved
more than four times.
Miss Longfield said: ‘These chil-
dren are being denied the chance to
put down roots, to feel part of a fam-
ily and to settle at school. It is not
surprising that they are often the
ones most at risk of exploitation.’show. A further 17,410 were aged 16
to 18 and there were just over 14,000
children under the age of five.
The report found that older teen-
agers in care are five times more
likely than children under 13 in the
care system to have been identified
by social workers as gang members
and four times more likely to have
been involved with drug abuse.
They are also 12 times more likely
to have been involved in criminal
trafficking; seven times more likely
to have gone missing from their
homes and six times more likely to
have been caught up in child sexual
exploitation. Miss Longfield said: ‘It
is clear that we have a care system
which is playing catch up.’
She added that teenagers often
have ‘the most complex and expen-
sive needs’, adding that in one local
authority ‘20 per cent of the entire
children’s services budget is being
spent on just ten children.’
The report also said teenagers are
particularly exposed to the endur-
ing failures of the care system which