One in three knife crime offenders sent to prison last year

Ministry of Justice figures show that 898 knife and offensive weapon offenders were cautioned or convicted in West Yorkshire in the year to March – with just 277 (31 per cent) resulting in immediate custody.

This was down from 36 per cent in 2020-21, and from 35 per cent in 2019-20, before the coronavirus pandemic.

The Telegraph & Argus has reported on several of these instances in Bradford over the last 12 months.

In August, an intoxicated man caught in a shop doorway with a hammer and a lock knife was spared jail so he can continue treatment for his mental health problems.

Fieldhead Business Centre (Image: Google)

Ian Moorhouse, 52, of Centre Street, was seen with the weapons at the Fieldhead Business Centre in Great Russell Court on April 23.

Last year, 14 per cent of offences resulted in a caution, 29 per cent in a community sentence, 17 per cent in a suspended sentence and 9 per cent in another form of disposal.

On March 20, Mohsin Ali Shahid, 26, of Grosvenor Road, was handed a suspended sentence for carrying a pocket knife in Tesco Express on Manningham Lane.

Tesco Express on Manningham Lane (Image: Google)

He was committed to prison for 12 weeks but that was suspended for 12 months.

Across England and Wales, the proportion of offenders receiving an immediate custodial sentence for a knife and offensive weapon offence fell from 36 per cent in 2019-20, to just 29 per cent last year.

Anti-knife crime charity the Ben Kinsella Trust said it is "extremely worrying" to see fewer criminals being sent to prison across England and Wales, despite a rise in knife crime.

Read: Youths as young as 11 caught with bladed weapons in Bradford

This comes despite a 2015 policy of “two strikes and you’re out” – where repeat offenders would face a minimum six-month prison sentence for carrying a knife.

MoJ statisticians said the latest figures are impacted by the effects of the pandemic – including the impact of lockdowns, changes to court arrangements, the re-opening of courts and the types of cases which were prioritised.

In West Yorkshire, the rate of knife offences was 49 per 100,000 people last year – up from 42 in 2020-21.

Meanwhile, the average custodial sentence length for offenders nationally rose slightly to 7.5 months in 2021-22.

The Government said the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act ensures the most serious and violent offenders will spend longer behind bars.