Kerb-crawlers targeted

The Home Office and police are clamping down on street prostitution with a new advertising campaign targeting kerb-crawlers.

The adverts will feature on local radio stations and carry warnings that kerb-crawlers could face arrest, a court appearance and warning letters to their home.

A £1000 fine and a driving ban, will also be mentioned.

The six week campaign is launched this week in London, Middlesbrough, Peterborough, Southampton, Bristol, Bournemouth and Leeds.

But the adverts face criticism from those who would like to see prostitution legalised and think such "draconian crackdowns" will drive sex workers underground.

The Government hopes that clamping down on the demand for street prostitution will challenge the existence of street sex markets.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "Local communities are fed-up with street prostitution - the sexual activity taking place in their parks and playgrounds, condoms and discarded needles littering the streets and innocent women mistakenly targeted and abused by men on the prowl.

"For the residents it is intimidating, unpleasant and unsafe."

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