CRIMINALS have been repaying their debt to society by improving a pensioner's garden in Latchford.

A group of eight offenders doing community service used tools and a strimmer to completely revamp Patricia Snape's front and back garden at her home on Archer Avenue.

The grandma said: "I cannot explain what it means to me, now it’s safe for my three grandchildren to come and play here.

“The garden had become a really big strain on my shoulders.

"I’m so pleased by how it looks, it’s like I’m in a new house.”

Jake Townsend, aged 18, is part way through 180 hours of unpaid work, a sentence imposed after he was caught supplying a class A drug.

He said: "“I was worried that the work would be tedious, but this is a good job because we can all see how much it means to the resident and it’s something we can take some pride in.

“Obviously it’s a pain having to give up my free time and work in the rain, but it’s better than I expected.

“I think if I’d have got a short prison sentence I’d have been in a tight community of offenders, it would have given me more contacts and would have made things worse.”

The work was completed under the watchful eye of Cheshire and Greater Manchester Community Rehabilitation Company.

It has a contract with Golden Gates Housing Trust to arrange work on its properties during community service.

Sheila McGregor, practice manager for communities in Warrington, said unpaid work can be a tougher sentence than going to prison.

"We do work that other people can't do or won't do - if we didn't do it, it wouldn't get done," she said.

"To people who say it's soft, I'd say come out and do it.

"The work is done in the snow and freezing cold, but also when the sun is cracking the flags.

"If somebody does not stick to the rules, they are swiftly returned to court."