ALL ten yobs subject to Antisocial Behaviour Orders in Poole have been charged with breaking the court's conditions, the Daily Echo can reveal.

And the number of young people locked up from Bournemouth and Poole has almost doubled as magistrates are sending them to custody for the breaches.

Eight youths and one adult, who have been ordered to stop plaguing residents with their antisocial behaviour, have breached the Asbos imposed on them by magistrates, according to the town's Abos co-ordinator Ian Cooke.

And a man, 20, is due to appear in court next month, accused of breaching his two-year Asbo for assaults, drink-driving and other offences.

Mr Cooke said the breaches do not change the council's view that Asbos are a good way of dealing with the problem - in fact, he is applying to the courts for another six Asbos.

"An Asbo is designed to protect the community, and we consider they are working in the main," he said. "They are the best thing we've got at the moment."

Asbos are meant to be public orders, with members of the community helping the authorities to police them by reporting any breaches.

In Bournemouth, 10 Asbos have been made, with eight of them relating to under-18s, and four of the youths have breached their orders.

Jayne Robertson, Bournemouth's Asbo co-ordinator, said: "These young people are used to a certain way of behaving, and it takes them a while to adjust to not behaving that way.

"One of the orders was breached five times in the first two weeks, and hasn't been breached since, and another one was breached shortly after it was imposed in June and hasn't been breached since. I'd say these Asbos have been very successful."

But Pauline Batstone, who manages Bournemouth and Poole's Youth Offending Team (YOT) and is chairwoman of the National Association of YOT managers, said blanket bans contained in Asbos are likely to be automatically breached by the youths.

As the government says magistrates must consider custody for people convicted of breaches, she added that more youngsters are being locked up.

"I'm particularly concerned about what actually works," she said. "Locking people up doesn't work because they come out.

"We want to stop them offending when they're in the community. The numbers in custody from Bournemouth and Poole in the first quarter of this year almost doubled because of young people being sent into custody for breach of Asbo."

One of the Bournemouth youths and four of the under-18s in Poole - who cannot be named for legal reasons - have been sent to young offenders' institutions.

Nathan Cooper, 28, of Hudson Close, Alderney, was jailed for two months two weeks ago.

He breached his Asbo by smashing windows in the home of a 40-year-old woman and threatening to "rip her throat out".

But the breaches can also include lesser offences, such as associating with named people and going to specified places, like supermarkets or council estates.

A 16-year-old from Poole, who was banned from acts of vandalism by an Asbo, was given a six-month detention and training order in April after damaging a drainpipe.

But both Mr Cooke and Ms Robertson said custodial sentences for breaches are another means of protecting the public.

"It's not just about the young person, it's about the community," said Mr Cooke. "The courts have to look at the reasons why the prohibitions are there in the first place.

"If people are banned from seeing each other, it's because when they're together, they cause trouble."

First published: August 27