MARAUDING Winsford youths are causing sleepless nights for a family living near the Greenfields Estate.

Although she wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, one married mother of two felt compelled to share her experience of anti-social behaviour following the Winsford Guardian's front-page story on anti-social behaviour orders.

And the woman making the claims says she is fed up with the courts letting offenders get off lightly with what she sees as soft community punishments.

She said: "My husband and I have suffered three burglary-type incidents in six months - we live in private housing near the Greenfields estate itself.

"When the police come out they investigate and manage to eventually arrest them, but the courts just give them a community punishment which is no good at all.

Watching

"A lot of workers around where we live are shift workers who work different kinds of hours - I think the youths think that nobody can see them because we are all asleep, but we are often awake and watching them.

"The police told me that they know who these people are and they want to put them away but the courts just let them go.

"A few weeks ago they tried to break into our car to steal the CD player.

"This was in full view of us - we were staring out the window at them and they just carried on.

"One of them had his head under the bonnet and was just pulling the wires out of the car while we watched.

"We did what you are supposed to do - phone the police and wait.

"Now we find that we aren't sleeping properly at night anymore. I lie there listening for a noise and you worry when you hear anything at all.

"I just think it seems like a free ride for the criminals. They must be laughing at us, all the way to the bank.

"Maybe these ASBO's could help - they are supposed to stop people whose behaviour causes real problems for others."

rfraser@guardiangrp.co.uk