A probation officer from Enfield has said the area suffers from “a lot” of youth offending.

Chris Davies, 58, has been doing the job for 30 years, and during that time has helped people turn their lives around.

He said that people, including those in Enfield, can get pulled into crime by more serious offenders, and that younger people who offend could be more “naïve”.

Mr Davies said: “In the Enfield area, there is a lot of youth offending with people getting involved in gangs and gang activity.

“We work with the police in each individual case, we do home visits, we speak to parents.”

“Our job is to try and pull them out of that lifestyle and towards a more positive future.”

Mr Davies said he focusses on the issues that led people to offend in the first place and aims to reduce the likelihood of someone making the same mistake twice.

He said: “While they receive support, we would work on other issues with them such as relationship counselling or looking for a job, getting back into college.

“People could have a low self-esteem so we would be trying to boost their self-image.”

Mr Davies also does behaviour work with people, making them think about the decisions they make and if there could be a better way of achieving a positive outcome.

He added that the changes people make in their life could be a gradual process. He aims for people who come out of prison to have a fresh start and "re-integrate" them into society.

Mr Davies said: “Roughly two thirds of people I supervise do not re-offend within the first five years.

“You don’t know if they are going to re-offend. But in most of our cases we do have a positive impact on them when they go into the community.”