Hundreds of tearaways to be tagged

Hundreds of London's most prolific young criminals will be electronically tagged and put under curfew for a year under plans to combat a teenage crimewave.

The scheme to expand dramatically the use of intensive supervision and surveillance will be unveiled tomorrow at major conference on youth crime in London.

New laws planned to change sentencing rules will see several hundred a year given 12 months of intensive supervision instead of the customary community sentences. With electronic tags they cannot go out at night without alerting security guards.