Anti-social teens in Littlehampton warned by police

During Tuesday evening (August 12) officers received calls relating to youths causing damage to property at the Worthing Road allotments.

Thanks to quick reporting by members of the public, police attended and discovered damage to a greenhouse, a shed and allotment owners’ vegetable plots.

As a result of this incident ten boys aged 13 or 14 from Littlehampton were stopped and spoken to about what happened.

One is being dealt with by community resolution and will pay compensation to the victims and write letters of apology.

The other nine will be written to by Sussex Police and the antisocial behaviour team at Arun District Council warning the children that if they do not behave, further action will be taken against them.

Sergeant Ian Cheesman, from Arun neighbourhood policing team, said: “These sort of incidents have a detrimental impact on the local community in terms of their time and cost to them.

“There is no clear reason why the youths engaged in this antisocial and criminal behaviour.

“We are grateful to the local community for calling us at the time and monitoring the group until our police teams arrived on the scene and very pleased that there could be a positive outcome for the victims and the wider community.

“We would reiterate the importance of members of the public calling us at the time that they witness incidents and hope that the local youth community will understand that this behaviour is criminal and antisocial and will be dealt with robustly.”

If you have information about antisocial behaviour email [email protected] or call 101.