OUR Car Safe campaign is gaining more and more support. Today, Henry Widdas talks to magistrates who are pledging to do all they can to support its aims.

Car criminals are being warning by Gwent magistrates to stop committing offences or face severe punishment.

The news comes as police reveal the rapid rise in car crime in Gwent. Across the county there was a 57 per cent increase in car theft for the first quarter of 2003 compared to the same period of 2002.

The Argus Car Safe campaign was launched in response to the alarming statistics.

We want to see tougher sentences for car criminals and a reduction in vehicle crime figures.

Gwent magistrates are now pledging they will be tougher. Sentences cannot be increased above maximum levels but magistrates can move toward punishments at top of the scale.

That is six months in prison for theft of a vehicle, when sentenced at a magistrates' court.

Derek McKie, the oldest serving magistrate in South East Gwent, said: "The Argus campaign has helped to bring this to the attention of magistrates and many will now deal with car crime more severely.

"The courts will respond to this, I have no doubt." Mr McKie, who has served as a magistrate for 32 years, said Home Office guidelines asked for local circumstances to be reflected in sentences and for deterrent sentences to be given on occasion.

Clerk to the Gwent Justices, Eddie Harding, said case law allowed for deterrent sentences if the offence was widespread in an area.

Mr Harding, also secretary of the Gwent Magistrates' Association, said that if a sentence was challenged for being too harsh, magistrates could defend themselves by arguing the prevalence of the crime contributed to the stricter penalty.

Newport-based senior magistrate Paul Wilkinson said: "Without any doubt at all, I believe anyone who steals a car should go to prison. Anyone who steals from a car should be given a community punishment or given a custodial sentence if the damage caused was serious enough.

"That is what I will be pushing for in court, but I sit with two other magistrates and two of the three have to agree."

Magistrate Rosamund Howell, of Newport, said she would be looking to give tougher sentences for car crime, armed with the knowledge of the problem it causes in the area.

She said: "We need to do this to try and stamp it out. We have to be tougher and I would recommend repeat offenders go to prison." And Narinder Harish, who has been a magistrate for three years, said: "We know car crime is a problem and that gives us more power when sentencing.

"For the second offence then I will be looking at a custodial sentence."