TWO schoolgirls are no longer working the streets to pay for their drug habit thanks to a crime-fighting scheme pioneered by police.

The girls, one 14 and one 15, had both resorted to prostitution to pay for drugs and alcohol, officers in Cherwell said.

After a series of run-ins with the law, they came under the spotlight of Superintendent Howard Stone’s new offender management scheme, which targets prolific young offenders and tries to get their lives back on track.

Supt Stone, who is in charge of policing in the district, refused to reveal whether the girls were from Banbury, Kidlington or Bicester, but said the initiative had helped turn their lives around.

His scheme is expected to be rolled out across Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley over the next couple of years.

It is also being heralded as the main reason why crime rates in the district have fallen in the last five years, approximately ten per cent year-on year — equivalent to 718 fewer crimes. Robbery, theft from and of motor cars, assault and criminal damage, are all falling.

Supt Stone said: “They are now on courses to address their literacy issues, they were constantly being arrested for being drunk and for criminal damage.

“Criminal justice wasn’t the way to go with these two, but education, health and social care seems to have solved the problem.

“This proves how agencies working together can provide support to enable young people to get their lives back in order.”

Youth workers, residents, landlords, councillors, police and representatives from the court and social services are among those who meet every two weeks to discuss the 30 prolific young offenders who repeatedly give the police a headache.

They find courses for them to enrol on at local colleges, show them where youth clubs meet, and help them to sort out housing problems — anything to steer them away from crime.

Supt Stone said crime had fallen within this group by 70 per cent thanks to the scheme, and the seriousness of crimes being committed had also fallen.

Cherwell district as a whole achieved 34 per cent fewer crimes in April to August compared to the same period last year, and achieved a detection rate of 20 per cent — the highest of the 16 local policing areas in the Thames Valley.

Supt Stone said: “Another young offender had numerous burglary offences, the youth offender management team attempted to work with him to turn him away but he failed to respond. It was decided he probably needed a custodial sentences to show him where he was heading. So this scheme is very much about carrot and stick.”

Supt Stone said: “People might think it’s all fluffy partnership work but it’s not just a talking shop, it really works.”