BURNLEY'S number one burgler has volunteered to take part in a new crime-prevention scheme in a bid to kick drugs and prison.

The Burnley man, in his mid-20s, is currently in jail after carrying out more than 200 break-ins in three years, including 100 during a four-week period on the run.

But he told police if he didn't sign up to the initiaitve he would be back on heroin and committing crime within 24 hours of his release.

DC Ken Tyson, who along with probation officer Shirley Johnson, runs the Burnley scheme said: "He is eager to put his life back together because he wants to rebuild relationships and have access to his four year old child.

"He is a heroin user but he has been in prison for about a year and he is now free of the drug. He was burgling houses to fund his habit and sometimes it would cost him £100 a day.

"He is, from statistical analysis, the top offender in the Burnley target area and when you look at the amount of crime he admits to - 200 burglaries in total - and estimate how much each cost it comes to £100,000, the total funding for the initiative."

The scheme, based on an initiative in the Dutch city of Dordrecht, gives offenders support and help to make a fresh start backing up other safety work carried out to support the victims of burglary.

The development has been revealed on the day that a party from Dordrecht is visiting Burnley on a community safety fact-finding mission. Burnley Council community safety officer Graham Smyth saw the scheme on a visit to Holland and decided to launch a similar project in South West Burnley and Burnley Wood.

The Dutch project has reduced crime by a third and early signs in Burnley are encouraging.

A £100,000 Challenge Fund grant helped pay for the scheme which is organised by Burnley Council.

Today the Dutch party were due to see a package of measures in South West Burnley and Burnley Wood including the homesafe burglary reduction scheme, upgrading lights and providing education and activities for children and young people.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.