Foreigners make up more than a quarter of London's crime suspects

 
Met police
Justin Davenport9 November 2012
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More than a quarter of all criminal suspects arrested in London are foreign nationals with around half coming from the EU, Scotland Yard revealed today.

Intelligence also shows around 1,400 foreign suspects are classified as “high harm offenders” with links to gangs, violence, sex offences or burglary.

The figures emerged as Scotland Yard revealed details of a joint operation with the UK Border Agency to target the 200 foreign nationals arrested every day in the capital.

Police have drafted in immigration officials to all of its 72 custody suites in London to help gather intelligence on foreign suspects.

The figures show that in the five weeks since the Operation Nexus was launched the Met arrested a total of 25,968 people, of whom 6,988 were identified as foreign nationals.

Of these 155 were immediately identified as breaching immigration rules and detained by the UKBA. Around a quarter of these people have already been deported. Forty three of the 155 were arrested for violence, 13 for sex offences, 18 for drugs and 27 for theft.

Intelligence shows that around 1,400 are high harm offenders who are associated with crimes including gangs, violence, sex offences or burglary.

Around 25 per cent of London’s most dangerous gang members and about 15 per cent of sex offenders are foreign.

Flags are placed on ‘high harm’ suspects to prevent them getting British citizenship.

For the first time British embassies abroad are also using the Nexus databases to block visas for ‘high risk’ individuals with a history of violence and crime.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of Specialist Crime and Operations, said: “As London becomes an increasingly international city we need to make sure that we are as effective at catching or stopping offenders from abroad as we are domestic offenders.

“If you are a British suspect we can know lots about you by looking at fingerprints, DNA and we can compare intelligence with other forces around the UK.

“But we do not have that level of information about foreign nationals who are arrested here and this is about getting better at dealing with them.”

He added: “We are working with UKBA and specially trained police officers to get better at identifying offenders because sometimes they lie about who they really are.”

Mr Rowley said the operation had also uncovered “extraordinary cases” where people had been living in London and “keeping their head down” but who are wanted in their own countries for serious crime.

Sometimes they were arrested for minor offences such as shoplifting but found to be wanted abroad for rape or violent offences.

About half of all foreign nationals arrested in London are from the EU and the Met is building closer links with police forces in Ireland, Lithuania, Poland and Romania, countries with a high proportion of people arrested.

Further afield police say countries such as India, Somalia and Jamaica have high numbers of nationals arrested in London.

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