Daily Mail
December 14, 2013
Romanians are being arrested in London at seven times the rate of Britons, it was revealed yesterday.
Around 800 people from the Eastern European state were arrested in the capital last month, according to official figures.
Many of them are linked to a wave of cashpoint fraud which cost an estimated £40million in the first six months of this year alone.
Police say that for every 1,000 Romanians in London, 183 are arrested. This compares to 26 Britons per 1,000.
Police chiefs have been told to investigate the reasons behind the hugely disproportionate figures.
They are concerned that they could rise even higher when restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians living in Britain are lifted on January 1.
The Government is preparing for a ‘comprehensive’ review of how foreign national offenders are treated in the criminal justice system.
There are concerns that gaps in cross-border intelligence checks are allowing prolific and dangerous offenders to slip through the net.
The latest figures emerged at a summit about the threat posed by foreign criminals held at City Hall, in Central London.
Stephen Greenhalgh, the capital’s deputy mayor for policing, was told the Met has undertaken an in-depth study of overseas offenders.
It found that Romanians account for more than 11% of all foreign national offenders, despite making up just a tiny proportion of residents.
This placed the Eastern European nation at the top of a ‘league table’ of foreign suspects, followed by people from Poland, Lithuania, India and Nigeria.