A spike in youth crime has driven the community to take action on a scourge a car robberies many believe are the result of unsupervised children who are allowed to roam the street at night.
A local Home Hill business owner had his Ute stolen in July this year and when he discussed the issue with the community he discovered that it was widespread, with many others coming forward to describe similar incidences.
“It’s becoming common, and it seems to be a similar group of young people each time,” said Karl Vass.
“The police found my Ute dumped - they’d burnt the clutch out, so I think perhaps they didn’t know how to drive a manual!”
The crime was reported to the police, but Mr Vass believes that because many young criminals are let off with just a warning, they behave like they are above the law.
He said that he is confident that the crime was committed by four youth aged 13 to 16.
“I know they’ve been involved with stealing cars before,” he explained.
“The system clears the slate for them when they turn 18 so they just don’t care.
“The community are frustrated as there are no consequences.”
A local police spokesperson said that measures are taken to “conduct bail checks on persons on curfew.”
“We also work with PCYC with their youth programs like Blue Edge, Active Mates and we visit schools on request and officers are heavily engaged with youth both at work and through Burdekin Area Youth watch.”
Mr Vass and other interested parties conducted a special meeting where 200 people gathered at the Home Hill Memorial Gardens to discuss how they could help.
“It was a good turnout but not really, as it was a sign of how many people had been effected,” said Mr Vass.
“95 per cent of the population are good, honest hardworking people – it is just a small percentage that are not.”
“I think there needs to be a lot more emphasis on the parents – perhaps they need to get charged – they definitely need to take more responsibility.”
Mr Vass says the community action group have decided to offer a positive response to the issue.
“A lot of these young people have no home life, they have nothing to do, and we are just trying to communicate with them,” he explained.
“We want to reward those that show good behaviour, incentivise them by taking them on water-skiing trips that sort of thing.
“We want to do things that make them feel part of the community.”
Karl Vass is allegedly a victim of youth crime, but says he wants to help perpetrators become better people. Photo credit: Rachael Smith
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