Six arrested in police crackdown on youth offending in Ballarat

The arrests come after Ballarat was selected as one of eight priority communities to receive $700,000 in state government funding to help 40 other high-risk teenagers avoid the kind of charges the six face.

Inspector Trevor Cornwill, who relocated to Ballarat in May after overseeing police during Melbourne's Bourke Street attack, said there had been a drop in the number of aggravated burglaries following the six arrests over the past month.

"We have a problem with a small collective group that commits the majority of our crime in Ballarat," he said.

"The home invasions, breaking into people's houses to get keys to steal cars – that's only something we've seen in the last couple of years.

"Since those six have been remanded in custody, we've noticed a huge drop in crime levels. So that adds weight to our thoughts that it's a small percentage committing the majority of the crimes."

But Victoria Police knows it cannot arrest its way out of the problem and that it must be a community-wide effort, according to Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton.

The $700,000 intervention will be chaired by Ballarat Community Health’s Katherine Cape, who will lead a multi-agency response to steer low-level offenders in the right direction. 

"We know young people who get into crime have a range of complex issues going on," she said.

“They might not have a supportive family, be struggling with drug and alcohol addiction or mental health problems and also not be engaged in school.

“(This program) is not so much about punishing them but realising the reason why they got involved in crime and putting the right support in at an early stage.

“The 40 young people we targeted have had some criminal offences or cautions and their behaviour is on the road to becoming more serious unless supports are put in place now.”

The $700,000 intervention, which is called the Ballarat Youth Crime Prevention Project, will provide 40 teenagers with intensive support by allowing case workers to help them with schooling and employment.

It is a trial and will be evaluated in 12 months to determine if it is worth continuing. 

Inspector Cornwill, who grew up in Ballarat, says some young people commit crimes for the thrill instead of financial gain.

He said detectives believe a small group of repeat offenders were behind this year’s spate of aggravated burglaries and motor vehicle thefts.

"There's a small percentage who are involved in a lot of high volume crime and serious crime," he said.

"They're not the sort of aggravated burglaries where offenders assault people, it's where they break into garages to steal keys while residents are asleep upstairs.

"Goodness knows how many houses they try before they find an open door.

"And it doesn't seem that they're doing it for profit, or even for drugs or cash, it seems to be for the thrill."

The latest Crime Statistics Agency figures released in September showed aggravated burglaries had spiked in Ballarat.

There were 217 residential aggravated burglaries in the last financial year across Ballarat, up 43 cases on the year before. 

However, Inspector Cornwill said the number of break-ins had begun to decrease after the arrests of six young offenders over the last month.

"The old cars, they used to break into them on the street and they were easier to steal,” he said. 

“But new cars have new security measures, so they're breaking into garages to steal keys. 

“It's more about risk taking behaviour by breaking into houses, stealing cars when they're not licenced and driving them at speeds that they shouldn't be. 

“And they don’t think about the consequences to them, their friends … and other road users.”

Ballarat residents saw this two months ago when teenager Jacqueline Vodden, 16, was killed in a car smash on the Western Freeway near Ballan.

But Inspector Cornwill hoped the $700,000 state government intervention would help avoid this happening again. 

“If kids haven’t got direction … that’s when some start mixing with people who are more crime-orientated,” he said. 

“I’ve been in the police force for 30 years and I see this pattern. 

“It’s not like there’s a lot of young offenders in Ballarat, there’s a small group we’re addressing.”